


conman's lure

by ashmes



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Historical, Human Experimentation, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Child Sexual Abuse, Implied/Referenced Torture, Inspired by The Handmaiden (Movies), M/M, Mutual Pining, Slow Burn, Taisho Period
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-04
Updated: 2019-11-04
Packaged: 2021-01-22 14:28:55
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 35,138
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21303614
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ashmes/pseuds/ashmes
Summary: Japan, 1923Uzumaki Naruto is given to work at the Uchiha compound in an elaborate plan to steal the wealth. The plan becomes muddied when he meets Uchiha Sasuke.
Relationships: Uchiha Sasuke/Uzumaki Naruto
Comments: 15
Kudos: 328





	conman's lure

**Author's Note:**

> WOOH! We finally posting this! THANK GOD! LOL
> 
> While this work is based on The Handmaiden, aka one of my favorite movies and one of my fave wlw pairing ever, this fic is based on it. There's some similarities, of course, but I've taken it to be my own.
> 
> I always get a lil nervous posting longer fics, idk why it's just like... AHH. Yknow what I mean?
> 
> **PLEASE READ THE WARNINGS BEFORE YOU READ! **  
While none of the acts of abuse is ever explicitly shown, it's implied and referenced throughout the fic itself. If you need specific spoilers, click the end of notes for scenes for when it's spoken about if you need to skip. Your mental health comes first.
> 
> Anyway, I hope you enjoy! :~)

Japan, 1923

The Uchiha compound is more overwhelming than Jiraiya had made it up to be. 

Weeks of travel have finally led them here, deep within the countryside of Japan. Out here away from the larger cities of Tokyo and Osaka, the air is crisp and clean, the roads unmarred and made of dirt that has the backseats of the automobile jumping, making Naruto’s stiff back from the weeks of travel ache. All of it worth it once they make it past the gates of the infamous and isolated Uchiha compound.

Beside him, Sakura gasps softly as the car passes through the gates and opens up to the grand courtyard. The clusters of buildings and living quarters tightly knit together, surrounded by the full bloom of cherry blossoms and flowers decorate the entrance with a bright colors despite the fact it’s toeing into early autumn. Never in his life has Naruto ever seen as much beautiful greenery, lush and billowing with life.

Truthfully, Naruto’s never stepped foot into such a fancy place, let alone taking a ride in one of the automobiles the three were currently in. This was all exciting new territory and he couldn’t quite wipe the awe off his face.

“You both better keep your jaws shut tight unless you want flies swarming in them,” Jiraiya warns with a bellowing laugh, taking a huff from his now pipe, blowing the smoke out of the open windows. 

Sakura promptly closes her mouth while Naruto merely rolls his eyes. The man’s in his best suit, carefully pressed and free of any lines, so he understands the intimidation the other girl may feel around the other’s presence. However, Naruto’s seen Jiraiya in more compromising states of undress, so the effect has little influence on him. 

“Pervy Sage, how did you even hear about this Uchiha guy anyway?” Naruto asks as the automobile rolls up to the main house. From the sheer size of the building and the intricate ornate designs of the door, the large family crest at the center, the family itself must be one of the older families of Japan.

Despite this, Naruto’s only ever heard rumors about the family from the tragedy from years ago. Nothing about the actual history or importance the lineage has. Or, more accurately, had.

“Through a recent visit with an old friend from my early years. A fine arts collector I’ve mentioned to you before, Naruto. Goes by the name Orochimaru,” the older man replies easily, snuffing out his pipe for the time being. The name doesn’t exactly ring any familiar bells, considering Jiraiya’s line of work has him meeting plenty of collectors and curators throughout Japan. “Get going. You’ve got Lady Haruno’s and I’s bags to unload.”

Naruto rolls his eyes at the command, already aware of the drill. He’s the first to step out of the automobile, holding out a hand that Sakura eyes momentarily before accepting with a small smile that Naruto returns brightly. Jiraiya follows suit and Naruto shuts the door behind him. The car is in park, the engine rumbling as it continues on. Already Naruto makes his way to the back, taking the two suitcases belonging to Sakura and his own into both hands, watching their backs as Jiraiya exchanges a few unintelligible words with Sakura before they make their way to the large doors towering over the three of them.

Only one knock from Jiraiya has the door opening, the hinges creaking loudly as a younger woman around his and Sakura’s age opens the door, hair red and bright as a flame. “Welcome,” the girl greets, bowing politely at Jiraiya, then Sakura with a linger to her gaze, before opening the door wider, allowing them to step inside. “Orochimaru-Sama has been eagerly awaiting your visit, Jiraiya-Sama.”

“Where is that old snake anyway, huh?”

“Follow me this way to the garden and I’ll take you to him.”

The woman leads them further into the main house, and Naruto’s gaze lingers from the expensive art lining the walls, the shine of the freshly cleaned floors, how the gentle light of the sun breaking from the early morning haze shines through the windows. Naruto’s never really seen the appeal of architecture before—the most he’s ever worried about if he had a place to sleep that weren’t on the streets were whether or not there would be a roof over his head and was someplace warm. However, even he can recognize the amount of money needed in order to achieve this level of beauty, and could admire it as well.

After a right turn down the hall, they’re greeted by magnificent gates leading to the garden. The woman unlocks it with the keys she carries, and holds it open as she allows them to pass outside. As soon as Naruto steps out, it feels like a dream. Bright, saturated colors of the multitude of flowers come into focus, the scent of sweetness filling his nose, plants of all types lining the pathways. Under his feet, the grass is still wet from the morning dew, cooling his skin. 

Naruto wishes he could live here forever. 

It’s only then does he realize they must keep walking forward, and he scrambles to gather the luggage and follow after Jiraiya and Sakura to one of the larger trees in the center, where there’s already a collection of men gathered. One with dark hair is seated underneath the shade, eyes that are a shade of dull yellow eyeing the three of them as they approach, sending a dull shiver down Naruto’s spine. Another man with white hair and glasses over the bridge of his nose, younger than the first, stands dutifully at his side, back straight and at attention with a strange smile on his face. 

The other man is further off, turned away from everyone in the garden and only showing the expanse of his back, wavy hair that sticks up in odd places here and there. Lit up by the sunlight shines a sword, the young man apparently in the middle of practicing his stances. He’s dressed in a loose fitted hakama over the kimono, typical for the weather and for sword training. A single splash of color catches at the center of his back catches Naruto’s attention, considering its the same symbol he’s seen strewn around out in the front gates and throughout the rest of the compound. What Naruto assumes to be the Uchiha family crest. 

If only the man would turn around so Naruto could take a look at his face…

A sharp point shoves at his side, stealing his attention away from the Uchiha to see Sakura’s eyes narrowed at him, jerking her head in the direction to where Jiraiya and the two men are watching him with expectant eyes. Whatever they were talking about, Naruto must’ve completely missed it.

“Um…”

“Your name,” the man with the strange eyes prompts, eyes raking over Naruto with a mild interest. “I believe it important to know all my guests, even if they are only the help.”

Naruto has to fight the urge to glare at the older man’s chosen words, no matter how true they might be.

“Uzumaki Naruto."

The man’s smile is sharp with too many teeth and takes over the majority of his face. That’s not the most unsettling part. What sends another chill down Naruto’s spine is the way the smile doesn’t reach his eyes.

“Orochimaru.”

Already Naruto’s come to the realization that this man doesn’t promise anything good. 

“Now that all our introductions are all out of the way, I suppose it’s time to grab the attention of the man of the hour,” Orochimaru says. When he turns his gaze away to the Uchiha, his tongue darts from his mouth to slowly lick at his lips, and the sight of this has Naruto’s stomach clenching in discomfort. “Sasuke-kun, don’t be rude. Come say hello to our guests.”

Sasuke, apparently, pauses in his ministrations before returning the sword back into its sheath. He brings an arm to wipe the sweat from his forehead in one swift motion, and turns to walk back to the group with a bored expression on his face. 

The sight of him has Naruto’s breath hitching. 

_Nobody told me he’d be this pretty _.

Once he’s arrived, Sasuke stands on the other side of Orochimaru, opposite of the man with white hair and glasses who’s been quiet this whole time, quietly observing. Naruto watches as Sasuke’s dark eyes wander from Jiraiya, then Sakura, and lastly land on Naruto himself. Their eyes meet and the intensity of the other man’s gaze is burning, making Naruto feel warm and forces himself to wipe the sweat off his palms on his pant legs. Expressionless, except for the subtle quirk of his brow in Naruto’s direction that disappears as quickly as it came, before Sasuke breaks the hold he has on Naruto and return his attention toward Sakura instead.

Naruto’s unsure whether he feels relief or disappointment at the fact he no longer has the other man’s focus solely on him.

“You must be Lady Haruno,” Sasuke states, voice strangely deep and without inflection. Smooth as velvet. “Orochimaru-Sama has told me you’re Lady Tsunade’s greatest pupil. A grand achievement not many are able to claim for themselves, and one of the reasons I approved of a meeting between the two of us.”

“Thank you, Sasuke-kun.” Sakura bows her body in gratitude, and there’s the subtle blush blooming on her cheeks at the praise. “What I’ve heard about you from Jiraiya-Sama was most impressive as well.”

Jiraiya barks out a laugh to which Orochimaru and the man with white hair smile wide to in return. “I don’t know about the two of you, but I think this meeting is starting off to a great success!”

“Sasuke-kun, what do you think?” Orochimaru asks, amusement glittering in those eyes. 

“Hn, she’s adequate,” Sasuke responds, then shrugs. “We can continue to the next phase.”

The way Sakura tenses at his side and tight smile on her face lets Naruto know she’s on the brink of punching Sasuke right in the face. Truthfully, Naruto feels the same way. Where the hell does this guy get off thinking she’s just _adequate _?

“Yes, yes, you two need to get along on your own and spend some quality time together,” Jiraiya adds, placing his hand on Sakura’s back and all but shoving her in the direction of Sasuke. “Sasuke, I’ve also wanted to offer Naruto to you as your own personal servant. Naruto’s a faithful servant of mine and one who’s difficult for me to part with, considering how helpful to me he’s been over the years, but I believe he’s better suited here for now. If you’d have him, his debt would now belong to you.”

Sasuke quirks a brow at the words, glancing from Jiraiya to Naruto with an unreadable expression that has his Naruto’s face grow hot under the attention. Finally, Sasuke asks, “Is this some sort of bribe?”

“Of course not,” Jiraiya replies with a disarming, charismatic smile. “Think of him as an early wedding present.”

“No thank you. I’m afraid your _gift _will only be a distraction.”

Naruto’s gaze snaps towards Sasuke’s, anger flooding through him at the sheer gall the other had. What the hell was this guy’s problem!? The other man didn’t even know Naruto, there’s no way he could be able to make such rash judgements based on appearances alone. Not to mention the plan depended on Naruto to work for the arrogant bastard so—

“Nonsense, Sasuke-kun,” Orochimaru cuts Naruto off from his thoughts. The suddenness of the man’s voice has Sasuke’s head snapping in his direction, glaring angrily at the older man and Naruto could laugh right now at the bastard’s expression. Couldn’t help the smug grin that’s formed on his own features. “Why reject such a precious gift? After all, we could use the extra hands around the compound considering the difficulty in maintaining such a large place.”

Sasuke doesn’t dignify the other man’s words with a response. He tears his head away from him like a petulant child who’s been told no, which has Naruto chuckling to himself. At the sound, Sasuke’s head snaps up, meeting Naruto’s eyes with a strange look in his eyes that has Naruto pausing. 

A strange combination of hatred that morphs into fear at the sight of Naruto. Then it’s gone, replaced by the blank expression from earlier in the meeting. 

Naruto’s not quite sure what to make of it. 

“Run along and have fun with Miss Sakura, Sasuke-kun, but remember I need you to meet me in my study within fifteen minutes,” Orochimaru tells him then, giving him a limp wave of his hand away from the rest of them. “Kabuto, show Naruto where he can drop off Lady Haruno’s bags and where he’ll be sleeping during his stay with us while Jiraiya and I catch up.”

Everything happens so fast afterwards. Sakura shyly linking her arm with Sasuke’s who stiffens momentarily at her touch, before allowing her to drag him away from the rest of the group. Kabuto approaches Naruto, pushing up his glasses as he walks ahead of him without checking to see if Naruto is following him, already explaining the uninteresting facts about the garden and where the important buildings and rooms are. 

Before they go their separate ways, Naruto’s eyes find Sasuke’s once again, like a magnetic pull. The other lingers on him, unreadable, before one of the gardens in the trees block their view and he disappears from sight. Naruto shakes the image of his intense eyes before tuning back into whatever Kabuto is telling him at the moment.

Time to_ really _focus on the con of the century.

—

When Jiraiya had first approached Naruto with the idea of robbing the Uchiha of all his fortune, Naruto had thought the older man had finally jumped off the deep end and fully embraced madness. 

It had been during one of their stays somewhere on the outskirts of Kyoto, holed up in one of the hotel rooms Jiraiya had rented out for the evening. The room had smelt of booze and smoke that had made the air hazy, two naked women lying fast asleep in the bed as Jiraiya sat on one of the couches and Naruto across from him, counting out the money from Jiraiya’s readings of one of his more recent novels. Jiraiya had looked unusually pensieve that night, despite the lingering drunkenness on his face, and Naruto had simply been anxiously waiting for the other man to divulge his thoughts for the entire evening. 

Jiraiya only had to ask one question to capture Naruto’s interest:

_Hey kid, how would you feel if I told you I need one last job from you in order to pay off your debt to me?_

Despite his profession as a well-renowned author, Jiraiya has a bad habit of booze and girls that always lands him in more debts than booksales and readings can make up for. Even Naruto was vaguely aware of the fact even the Akatsuki had a track on his name, and whenever there was a need to make quick money, it usually always came back to them. Not only did the idea of paying off his own debt to Jiraiya seem tantalizing, but he wouldn't leave the only adult who's ever taken care of him fall to the sharks either.

That night the details of the plan were laid bare. Simple enough, in retrospect, but the more the other man went on, the more Naruto realized the plan was dependent on chance and downright luck than he would’ve liked. Naruto has dabbled in plenty enough scams throughout his life, but he preferred it when there was some sense of controlling the factors himself, finding success in a carefully thought out plan of action instead of one based on luck. Considering the life Naruto led, he always seemed to be on rather short supply on the latter. 

Except when Jiraiya had mentioned Sakura was on board, Naruto couldn’t help find himself believing that this might actually work afterall. All that was left was for Sasuke to accept Sakura’s proposal for an arranged meeting, and for Naruto to be accepted right by his side. 

Now that Naruto’s here in the Uchiha compound, he realized that Sasuke’s acceptance had been the easy part in all of this. 

“You will be staying in this area of the main house,” Kabuto informs him, once they’ve entered this west wing after dropping off Sakura’s bags at the opposite end of the house. Halfway through Naruto has made more of an effort to pay attention to the other man’s tour, already predicting to find himself lost in such a vast, unfamiliar place such as this. “This is Sasuke’s room, and across from it is where you’ll be sleeping in case he requests your immediate presence.”

Nodding politely, Naruto bites back the words he actually wants to say. He’s no idiot. It’s not the first time he’s served under a man with such status such as Sasuke, doesn’t need to be explained his duties like a child.

“If you’re hungry, you are allowed to enter the servants and handmaids quarters in one of the other buildings of the compound, preferably before it gets dark out,” the other man continues, watching as Naruto pulls open the room divider, setting down his suitcase in the small quarters he’ll be staying in. “Under no circumstances are you permitted into Orochimaru-Sama’s bedroom. Do you understand?”

“I do,” Naruto replies with a roll of his eyes, glad his back is turned to Kabuto. 

“Any other inquiries you have may be brought to Karin, who will be serving as Lady Haruno’s handmaid during her stay. Try not to be a disturbance and you will be considered a rather useful addition to the household.”

For a moment, Kabuto turns and looks as if he’s about to leave, but a slow crawling smile takes over his face as he pushes back the glasses up the bridge of his nose. When he glances back in Naruto’s direction, his eyes are shining.

Naruto quirks a brow, prompting with a tentative, “Sir?”

“Sasuke should be finished with Orochimaru by now,” Kabuto says, taking out his pocket watch from his coat and checking the time. It’s impeccable, and Naruto can already guess the price he can get for it from the few seconds it’s out in view. “Why don’t you go by the study and get him prepared for dinner later tonight? It’s the doors central to when you first came in.”

It doesn’t feel late, but Naruto’s been traveling for so long that it may have done serious rewiring to his brain. The expectant look on Kabuto’s face doesn’t give him much incentive to argue, so he sets his singular suitcase down outside his room and makes his way all the way back to the main entrance.

Finding his way back to the front takes a few minutes, but then he’s back, standing in front of the large detailed black doors past the double staircase that he’d been gawking at earlier. Naruto knocks once before pushing the door open, the hinges creaking and echoing as it does. Orochimaru’s and Sasuke’s gazes snaps towards Naruto immediately, and his cheeks bloom in warmth at the sudden focus.

Orochimaru’s smile is as strange and fixated on him in a way that has Naruto shuffling on his feet, while Sasuke’s eyes widen in shock as his body tenses and pushes himself back from the table he’s sat.

Naruto’s about to step forward when Sasuke’s voice snaps, “Watch the snake, usuratonkachi.”

“What snak—” The words cut off into a half-scream when Naruto glances down to see the snake of mention, curled up together and showing off its fangs with a hiss. In the distance, Orochimaru’s laugh cackles as it follows towards where he stands, causing Naruto to bristle in annoyance. “Oh. That snake.”

Laced with frustration, Sasuke asks, “What the hell are you doing here?”

“Um.” Naruto’s mouth feels dry at the way Sasuke’s eyes are narrowed, piercing into his soul. The effect has his brain turning into putty. “Kabuto sent me to get you to get ready.”

A huff of breath leaves past Sasuke’s flared nostrils, his eyes closing as if to take a moment to recollect his thoughts. “Idiot. Only listen to me from now on, and not Kabuto. Do not_ever _set foot into Orochimaru’s study.”

If this was any other place, any other setting, Naruto would’ve told Sasuke’s arrogant, pompous and demanding self off. How was he supposed to know to not enter Orochimaru’s precious study? Not like Naruto was exactly a mindreader. 

“When I need you, I’ll call for you,” Sasuke continues, eyes scanning Naruto’s face over, making his cheeks go hot. “Now leave.”

The door slams shut in his face, and Naruto bites down his tongue to keep himself from shouting the myriad of curses he wants to scream back at the other man.

—

After that particular morning failure behind him, Naruto trudges his way back towards where his bed is waiting for him.

Naruto takes in the tiny room, and though the quarters are tight, he’s slept in worse places. At least there was a bed with clean sheets, can smell the soft scent of soap wafting in the air from where he stands. He pushes his suitcase underneath his bed before laying onto the mattress that has the springs creak from the sudden weight. As soon as his head rests on the pillow, his body sinks into the mattress, eyelids growing heavy. Apparently the amount of travel has finally caught up to him. 

No one would miss him if he were to rest his eyes for a second…

A ringing of the bell has Naruto’s eyes snapping open as he all but flings himself out of bed. He eyes the nuisance with a glare that would kill, on the brink of muttering curses under his breath, until he realizes the reason why it’s ringing incessantly in the first place. 

It takes less than a minute for Naruto to rush across the hall and enter Sasuke’s room, where said man lets go of the string connecting between the two rooms at Naruto’s sudden appearance. Those damn eyes take him in again, dragging over his form from head to toe, as if analyzing Naruto before he meets his gaze once again. Silence has Naruto shifting his weight between his feet.

When Naruto realizes the other isn’t going to speak, he decides to break the silence first, “Um, hi. Is there anything you need?”

“There’s drool on your chin.”

Naruto’s eyes widen as he moves to wipe the drying drool from his chin, and for good measure anywhere surrounding his mouth, before snapping his gaze back to Sasuke. “Is that it? From the way you were ringing that bell I would’ve thought you were dying in here or something, but no.”

A huff of air escapes Sasuke’s nose, and there’s the slightest quirk of his lips that has Naruto wondering if the other was actually amused. “Apparently someone’s cranky when they’re woken from a nap.”

“I wasn’t napping,” Naruto insists, ignoring the way his cheeks warm at the teasing lilt in the other’s voice. 

“Steal or curse at me, I don’t care. Just don’t insult me by lying to my face.”

Naruto swallows at the stern tone of his voice, lacking any meanness. It’s only demanding of his attention, and Naruto’s on the verge of embarrassment at how easily he gives his focus to Sasuke. “There wasn’t much to do while you were out with Orochimaru, so…”

“That was hours ago, _Naruto _,” Sasuke replies easily. There’s something about the way his name rolls off the other man’s tongue, as if he’s playing with the syllables, that has Naruto swallowing back a lump in his throat. “Dinner’s already being prepared, and I was wondering where you were all this time. Now, I know.”

Has Naruto really slept _that _long? Damn it. It’s only the first day and he’s already fucking up his not-so-great first impressions, and now Sasuke was going to yell at him, smack him for his lack of proffesionalism, or perhaps worse, fire him. 

“I’m not angry with you. After sessions with Orochimaru’s, I tend to get headaches, and it’s been a long day already,” comes Sasuke’s voice, as if the other was reading his mind. “You’ve been travelling a while in order to come here, it’s expected you’d fall tired. Sakura is resting in her chambers right now as we speak.”

Now _that _wasn’t the response Naruto expected from Sasuke at all. Frankly, Naruto had expected the complete opposite considering the fact the other man wanted nothing to do with him upon their first meeting earlier this morning. He narrows his eyes towards Sasuke, searching for the joke in his features, the tell-tale sign Sasuke was fucking with him. Except there’s nothing there but complete earnesty that leaves Naruto somewhat uncomfortable in his own skin.

Sasuke must notice, considering he says, “Relax, Naruto, you’re not in any trouble. Aren’t you curious as to why I called for you?”

“Um, you were wondering where I was, right?” Naruto blinks languidly, wondering if he’s still dreaming. Still trying to recover the whiplash from the arrogant asshole from this morning to the shockingly reasonable person standing in front of him. “Unless there’s something else, too. Anyway, I’m here now, so is there anything else you need or should I just head on back?”

“Actually, I wanted to speak with you one on one,” says Sasuke. There’s a spark of amusement in his eyes, the small curve of a smile on his face as he crosses his arms over his chest. “Unless you’re too busy, of course.”

“O—Oh, okay. Sure, yeah, not busy at all.” Naruto cringes inwardly at the stutter in his own voice. What the hell was _wrong _with him? “We’re talking now.”

“I am well aware,” Sasuke responds cooly. “You’re nervous. Don’t tell me this is your first time working for someone.”

“Who the hell’s _nervous _?” Narrowing his eyes, Naruto reminds himself he can’t be giving Sasuke of all people any of his usual attitude. No matter how much the asshole may deserve it. “I’m not—” He cuts off the argument building, opting to sigh instead. “This isn’t my first time working with a man of your status, Sasuke. You’re just different from how I expected you to be.”

“Is it the house itself then?” A dark brow lifts in curiosity, scanning Naruto’s face as if searching for something. “You’ve must have heard stories in your travels surrounding the Uchiha name. The blood and scars that still litter within these walls.” 

Ah, so that’s what Sasuke’s searching for. Mindless fear. 

Naruto won’t be one to give into him. “I’ve heard about what happened to your family, but only the shallow details. All I offer you are my condolences.”

Pausing minutely with a narrowed gaze, Sasuke continues on as if he hasn’t heard him. Lifts himself off from where he leans and walks over towards Naruto, as if unbothered. “There are rumors of a curse about the Uchiha lineage… Perhaps their souls wander these empty halls, waiting to enact their vengeance. That’s not something you believe in, is it Naruto?”

“No, it’s nothing like that,” Naruto replies, voice steady. “You’re just different from how I expected you to be. That’s all.”

Sasuke hums softly at that, curiosity piqued. Good. Apparently Naruto’s managed to save himself from ruining his image even further, at least until he opens his mouth again.

“I’m not sure if that’s a good or a bad thing”

“You want my honest opinion?”

“Of course. I’d prefer it if you were honest in my presence actually,” Sasuke says. Maybe Naruto’s paranoia, or the way the man’s eyes seem to possess a hidden knowledge in a way Narutuo’s never seen from another person before, but he can’t help but feel as if Sasuke’s words are laced with a double meaning. “There’s probably a better chance the two of us will get along easier that way, don’t you think?”

_Not really _, Naruto thinks. 

Maybe if he weren’t currently plotting to bleed the man dry of all his money, sure. In another life where they’ve met under different circumstances. 

At least Naruto can offer a morsel of the truth when he answers in earnest, “I’m not sure yet.”

The other man’s gaze lingers on him again, head tilting a few degrees to the side as the familiar look of deep thought fixes on his face. Already Naruto’s beginning to recognize the subtlest movements of him, wonders how much longer it will take before he’s able to read him as easily as he can with everyone else. 

“You’ll let me know when you’ve come to a decision, won’t you, Naruto?”

Naruto blinks once, twice at the question. The room raises several degrees in temperature, and he can’t help the sudden urge he has to bolt far away from Sasuke’s deep, unrelenting gaze.

“Sure.”

What a strange man Sasuke is. Naruto feels the need to understand him further, make sense on whether he’s simply another rich asshole or a man with hidden depths to him that’s begging to be uncovered.

“You’re supposed to be helping me get ready for dinner,” Sasuke tells him, which Naruto takes as his cue to leave. He’s already turning towards the door, hand outreached to pull the divider before Sasuke’s voice has him freezing in place. “One more thing…”

Turning around once, Naruto eyes the seriousness in Sasuke’s expression, raising a brow in a silent question.

“Avoid finding yourself alone with Orochimaru if you can help it.”

Sasuke walks past him then without another word, and Naruto follows silently. 

First impressions aside, Naruto recognizes a warning when he hears it.

—

It’s taking every bit of self control for Naruto to not allow his glance to travel any further than the water lapping at Sasuke’s bare chest. Bubbles from the soaps are slowly dissipating, barely covering Sasuke where it matters, and the curiosity is screaming at him for just a peak…

Naruto refocuses his gaze back on the ceiling as he pours more of the jasmine oil into the tub once he realizes his eyes have lowers towards the hairs of Sasuke’s happy trail, whistling a tune he’s coming up with on the fly. A huff of a chuckle leaves past Sasuke’s nose, and when Naruto meets his piercing gaze, he takes note of the smirk on the bastard’s face, arms outstretched casually.

Full on display and completely aware of how good he looks. 

“Did you care to join me, Naruto?”

Naruto chokes on air, spilling a bit of extra oil into the tub despite himself. Ears burning as Sasuke laughs, a little more vocal, the sound ringing in Naruto’s ears like bells. 

“Um, no,” he mutters, once he gathers some semblance of thought. Wants to tell the asshole to shut up, but bites his tongue instead. There is an image to be maintained after all, and bad mouthing his boss isn’t exactly the way into keeping this job. “I was just distracted.”

A small hum leaves Sasuke, and it’s a low sound that goes directly down south. With his pinky, Sasuke drags it around the bath, apparently content with popping more and more of the bubbles. “There is enough room for two, actually…”

In a panic, or because Naruto’s an idiot, he grabs the small bowl he’s been using to clean the other’s hair and fills it with water, before he pours it all on Sasuke’s head. Sasuke sputters in surprise, and his bangs lay flat along the expanse of Sasuke’s face, blocking the other’s dangerous gaze. 

Naruto stifles a snicker, reaching for a towel and immediately going to dry at the other’s hair. “Whoops, sorry!” Tussles the other’s hair until Sasuke’s swatting a hand for Naruto to piss off, and Naruto does so, hiding a smile behind the smile. “You’re all done now, anyway.”

“Thanks,” Sasuke deadpans and stands in the middle of the tub.

The sheer force Naruto uses when he turns his head almost snaps his neck, and the action has Sasuke give out an amused _tch _. Already Naruto’s standing and grabs a clean kimono and hands it over to Sasuke, who puts it on as soon as he steps out of the tub, making it safe for Naruto to look at him again.

A short walk and the both of them are back in Sasuke’s bedroom.

Without rushing and tripping over himself or the fear of being punished distracting him, Naruto’s able to take it all in. It’s larger than any of the places Naruto’s lived in throughout the entirety of his life, the carpet underneath the soles of his feet is soft and a deep, royal navy blue. For a rich man, the room is surprisingly bare except for a few essentials, letters and books strewn about the place here and there. It’s strange, as if Sasuke doesn’t want to give himself away even in the privacy of his own bedroom. 

Naruto’s glancing over the titles of one of the books when Sasuke clears his throat, catching his attention. Beckons Naruto over with a simple glance and Naruto follows to where he’s standing at the edge of the bed, a few suits on display. 

“I hate dressing formally,” Sasuke says, glancing back at the outerwear. “Pick one for me.”

Naruto snorts. “You’re not really asking the right person for fashion advice. Only things I ever dress up for are Jiraiya-Sama’s readings, and even then he’s the one who’s dressing me.”

“You do the readings?” Sasuke asks, a lilt of interest in his tone. “I’ve never read any of his books before, actually. Never caught my attention, but...”

“No, no,” Naruto cuts him off with a forceful shake of his head, a breathy laugh escaping afterwards. “Never actually learned how to read. I’m more of a… performer.”

“_ Tch _, you belonged to an author and he didn’t even bother teaching you such a basic skill.” There’s a note of disapproval in Sasuke’s tone that strikes right at Naruto’s pride, a small frown tugging at his features. Judgement, Naruto realizes. 

Body tensing, Naruto’s already too defensive to notice the bite in his voice when he utters, “Not everyone has the luxury of being rich and sitting around reading books all day, or having somebody to teach them to read, ya know.”

“There was no offense meant. If anything, it was more towards Jiraiya than to you,” Sasuke remarks, eyes roaming over Naruto’s face with a carefully neutral expression as if searching for a hidden answer to an unasked question. The moment Sasuke finds it, he shrugs. “Not everyone is lucky enough to have parents to teach them.”

_That _has Naruto’s mouth go dry. Although whether it’s from the quick assessment or the cold indifference in which the other man had revealed a facet of his life, Naruto can’t be sure. Anger and something like grief bubbles in his chest, ready to spill over, until Sasuke says something that has his brain halting. 

“You can meet someone and understand their heart if you’ve been in their place,” comes Sasuke’s voice, not looking at Naruto but instead focusing his gaze on the clothes strewn around on the bed. “I’m an orphan as well.”

Of course, Naruto knew that fact about him even before he set foot in this house, but the disclosure of such information has Naruto surprised in a different way.

Indifference wasn’t what Naruto had felt from Sasuke earlier, but rather a carefully constructed expressionless mask. One made to keep oneself safe and protected from anyone looking to reach inside those fragile places and twist and cut until the wound opened again.

Naruto could understand, even if his mask were opposite to Sasuke’s. 

“I like the one on the left,” Naruto says instead of pushing further, because he doesn’t want to go there, no matter how much his heart jumps at the knowledge that this man who’s from a different world from him was maybe not so different after all. “You’d look good in a royal blue.”

Glancing over towards him at him, Sasuke lets out a soft _hmph _, eyes smiling. “That’s the only time I look good to you, Naruto?”

The sudden whiplash of the conversation has Naruto choking on his spit, and before he can so much as muster up some type of reply, Sasuke’s undressing from the loose-fitted pants first, then the robes of his kimono. 

Sasuke’s beautiful, a fact Naruto has already come to terms with upon first laying eyes on the other man, but seeing all of him in his entirety has only reaffirmed it. 

As the kimono falls into a pile at his feet, it’s difficult to focus on anything besides the smooth expanse of bronze skin, how the muscles of his shoulders, arms and chest stretch with every movement Sasuke makes. Well-built, slim but not skin and bones. Naruto’s fingers twitch at his side with the urge to reach out and trace over the hard lines of his muscles, gaze lowering from the dips of his collar bones down to dusky, hard nipples. Mouth watering as he goes lower, sees the dark hairs that disappear beneath the white cloth barely concealing the man’s…

Face burning, Naruto swallows back the excess drool and tears his eyes away from Sasuke as if the other man’s blinding. Sasuke lets out a breath of a laugh, although it’s difficult to tell from the way Naruto’s heart booms against his eardrums so loud he wonders if Sasuke’s able to hear it.

After a few minutes of the sounds of clothes shuffling and staring at the ceiling, Sasuke breaks the tension and asks, “Naruto, do you know how to do this?”

Naruto forces his breathing to go steady as he lets his gaze fall back to the subtlest curves of Sasuke’s lips, lingering on his chest until the other finishes buttoning up his dress shirt, and sees the tie hanging undone over his collar. He shoos the other’s hands away from the collar as he goes to make the knot, the sleeves of his kimono bunching up at his biceps.

Now that he’s no longer afraid his voice is going to break, Naruto teases, “A rich boy like you never learned how to knot a tie? You need help with everything, huh?”

There’s the subtlest movement of Sasuke’s arm and then Naruto feels it, the gentle grip of his elbow as the pad of Sasuke’s thumb smoothes over the expanse of his skin, his nerves tingling as if Sasuke’s touch is an electric current. Dark eyes meeting his own that makes it harder to breathe.

“Only if you’re the one helping me,” Sasuke replies in a low voice, warm breath hitting against Naruto’s lips that causes Naruto to dart his tongue out to wet them on instinct. After a moment, the touch is gone. “You’re far better at this than I am.”

“Um, you’re welcome?” 

The words aren’t meant to come out as a question, or as breathless as it is. Naruto’s brain feels short-circuited, disorientated, and all because of the beautiful bastard completely unaware he’s driving Naruto absolutely nuts.

A small grin appears on Sasuke’s face as he turns around to put his coat on. 

If Naruto was alone, he’d scream. Now he’s trying to focus his attention on his pocket watch to make sure Sasuke’s not late for dinner instead of the fact Sasuke’s pants do little to hide the curve of his ass. 

Spending too much time with Jiraiya has really turned him into a pervert.

—

Dinner goes on longer than Naruto expects. By the time he hears the heavy footsteps stumbling their way back to the room across from him, Naruto’s already finished dinner, and was on the verge of falling asleep. When he goes to check his pocket watch Sasuke's given to him for the time, it’s past midnight.

There’s hushed, angry whispers outside of the hall that the paper dividers do little to muffle the sounds. A smack of skin slapping skin cuts through the noise and silence falls afterwards. Naruto’s wide awake now, already moving to go outside and make sure everything’s alright, but stops at the door when he’s able to pick out a few words of the heated whispered argument.

Naruto’s only able to catch the last bit of the conversation through the wall:

_If he leaves because of your interference, I won’t be so merciful next time._

The blaring sound of a door slamming shut has him jumping in his spot, the force of it vibrating through the wooden floors. After a few seconds, Naruto peers out of the door to see Kabuto readjusting his glasses and an angry red mark across his cheek. Greeted to the sound of Sasuke’s door locking with a soft _click _. 

Immediately Kabuto flashes his gaze towards Naruto and with a deadly calm tone, says, “Oh, Naruto. I hope we didn’t wake you.”

“No, it’s alright. I was already up,” Naruto replies, glancing over towards the door leading to Sasuke’s room. “I should probably go check on…”

“Sasuke grows quite temperamental in the evenings, so I suggest not disturbing him after it grows dark. For your safety, of course.”

From the iciness in the other man’s stare and the lack of the usual distant smile he wears, Naruto knows this is not so much of a request as it is a threat. Another rule for him to learn, apparently, except this one’s unspoken. 

Naruto darts his eyes back to the bedroom door, brimming with a million questions for Sasuke, but most importantly to make sure he’s alright, but Kabuto’s stare has his blood go so cold it seeps into his bones. Brows furrowed, he turns his head away and nods without meeting Kabuto’s eyes. Whatever the reason for this altercation, Naruto can feel in his gut this isn’t right.

“Goodnight, Naruto,” Kabuto says with that damned smile again. “Remember, I’ll know if you find yourself unable to sleep again, and I’ll be more than happy to make you a cup of tea in order to help you.”

With a single finger, Kabuto pushes Naruto back into his closet of a room and shuts the divider door, leaving Naruto standing there trying to make sense of what the hell just happened.

—

During breakfast the next morning, Naruto finally meets the remaining staff within the compound. Sleep had evaded him majority of the night, too bothered by the events of the night before, so he wakes up later than he meant to, stumbling exhausted and groggy towards the building meant for the servants.

All too aware of Kabuto’s eyes on him until he’s sure Naruto’s left the main house altogether. That four-eyes gives digs at his patience like nothing else.

Luckily to Naruto’s growling stomach and lightheadedness, the servants and handmaidens quarters are only a short walk away from the main house. As soon as he steps inside the small building, the smell of freshly baked bread and fills his nose, mouth already watering. He follows the smell until he finds himself in the table where all of the servants and single handmaid from before, Karin, are sat together. All their eyes immediately trained on him.

“Guess this guy here’s the fresh meat,” says a man with white hair, smiling at him with pointed shark’s teeth. “How’s your first night in the big, comfy house, hm? From what I heard, you were out like a corpse.”

“Suigetsu,” warns the only other man at the table, big and burly with ginger hair. There’s a kindness to his eyes as he looks over at Naruto with a smile that starkly contrasts Suigetsu’s gaze whenever he glances in Naruto’s direction. “Ignore him. Come and sit with us before the food goes cold.”

Naruto doesn’t need to be told twice. He’s quick to grab a few of the fresh slices of bread on display on the kitchen, pouring himself noodles into one of the spare bowls on the table and reaches for a pair of chopsticks. Then he takes the closest available seat, in between Suigetsu and Karin, and already is filling his mouth to the brim with noodles and all but ignoring the shared snickers shared between the two, too hungry to care.

“I see nobody’s ever taught you table manners,” Karin sneers, scrunching her face in disgust as she flicks a noodle that’s fallen from his grasp onto the table, too distracted by the strange mark on her forearm to notice until it’s hit him square in the face. In response, Naruto lifts a middle finger, earning a surprised laugh from Suigetsu and a punch to the arm from Karin. Juugo merely shakes his head in disappointment.

“Finally!” Suigetsu cries out with a dramatic wave of his arms, draping one over Naruto’s shoulders and ignoring the glare Naruto sends in his direction when he jostles him, mouth too full to protest. “We’ve got one with some actual bite to him! Thank fuck, I don’t think I’d like you too much if you were as much of a bitch as Karin made you out to be.”

Naruto swallows down the rest of his noodles, moving Suigetsu off from him in order to shoot a questioning look over to Karin, who merely shrugs. “Don’t give me that look. Not everyone gets to stay in the main house _and _sleep the entire day away without consequence, priss.”

“Whatever,” Naruto retorts, rather lamely if the snickers from Suigetsu and Karin are anything to go by. “It’s not like it’s a big deal or anything.”

The three of them exchange glances with each other, communicating in a language of looks and and subtle twitches of their faces Naruto’s still unfamiliar with, before they all burst out into a fit of laughter.

“What?” Naruto glances around the table. “Am I missing something?”

“Newbie, the whole fact that you’re even _here _is a big deal,” Suigetsu says with a pointed look in his eye. “Sasuke’s very particular about who he allows to stay in the compound, let alone for who works for him.”

“Yeah, you must’ve made quite an impression on him,” Juugo adds.

Naruto doesn’t know why the words have him shifting uncomfortably in his seat, face undeniably warm despite the cool morning breeze.

“I mean, I guess I’ve noticed the staff’s a bit thin around here,” Naruto mutters, opting to take another bite of his breakfast instead of meeting the questioning gazes around him. “Honestly, I thought he wanted nothing to do with me, but then we talked earlier and... Well, anyway, Orochimaru-Sama was the one who insisted he take me on.”

The table grows quiet again, making Naruto glance up from his now empty bowl to the trio. Suigetsu and Juugo glance over towards Karin, the girl nodding in confirmation to whatever question their gazes held. Naruto can’t help but feel as if he’s out of the loop.

“Well, I’ll be damned,” Suigetsu says in mild disbelief. “Sasuke tell you to stay away from the old geezer?”

Naruto’s brows furrow, confusion brewing at the fact Suigetsu could’ve figured as much without actually bearing witness to the conversation. Instead of a verbal response, Naruto simply nods.

“Just listen to what Sasuke tells you and you’ll be fine,” Juugo says as the others grow quiet, returning to eating their breakfast. “Another word of advice, don’t take anything Kabuto gives you either.”

The night before flashes in his mind again, the heated whispers, the pleased smile on Kabuto’s face at the offering of tea.

“Geez, don’t scare the new guy away on his first real day, Juugo!” A laugh escapes Suigetsu as he slaps playfully at Naruto’s back, nearly making him choke on the bite of rice in his mouth. “You’re one lucky son of a bitch if you’re in Sasuke’s favor, Naruto.”

Whatever that’s supposed to mean, Naruto’s unsure. Maybe the rest of them are only trying to make his head blow up with false assumptions or outright lies, because why would it matter if Naruto’s on the man’s good side or not? Especially considering it’s Sakura who’s supposed to have won over his favor, not him.

Still, the idea of being on Sasuke’s good side does have Naruto’s cheeks warm in a way that’s not unpleasant.

“As long as Sasuke’s content with Lady Haruno, I’m happy.”

The other three share another knowing look around the table, a mess of snorts and eye rolls and smiles all around.

“Finish up your breakfast, stupid,” Karin retorts, nudging at Naruto’s leg with her foot, “We both have a busy day ahead of us.”

— 

True to Karin’s word, today did appear to be more busy. Why Sasuke had let him rest the day before makes more sense now. 

Once the table was cleared from the breakfast the guests of the main house held, the schedule of the day entailed of Sasuke and Sakura spending time together with Jiraiya and Orochimaru close by, supervising. Karin stayed close to the older men, quiet and keeping a keen eye on Sakura through the hedges. Luckily, Sasuke and Sakura had opted for taking a light stroll throughout the garden, talking quietly amongst themselves as Naruto hangs back with an umbrella outstretched to keep the sunlight away from the two.

“Tell me, Sasuke-kun,” Sakura starts, quiet and soft, a sharp contrast to the girl Naruto’s grown up with. It’s still strange to get used to Sakura like this, but he’s forcing himself to be good and quiet and biting back the snickers bubbling within his chest. “How long have you lived with Orochimaru-Sama?”

Sasuke’s jaw jumps under his skin, tense, before he takes a breath and relaxes himself. “Since I was eight years old,” he answers, curt and to the point. Ignores the waiting expression on Sakura’s face to continue speaking as Sasuke continues to keep his gaze focuses ahead of him. A completely different man from the one who’d spoken with Naruto.

The silence that falls afterwards is heavy and uncomfortable. When Sakura steals a glance in Naruto’s direction, eyes wide and desperate, Naruto understands immediately. None of this is going well, not for a lack of effort on Sakura’s part. 

Both of them understand this relationship must be saved, somehow.

“If you’ll excuse me, Sasuke-kun,” Sakura says, bowing her head before she dismisses herself completely. It’s only then does Sasuke’s gaze follows after her, more out of curiosity than anything else, watching as she calls for Karin who quickly removes herself from Orochimaru’s, Kabuto’s, and Jiraiya’s side before disappearing to the main house. 

As soon as she’s gone, Sasuke’s eyes dart back to meet Naruto’s. A single dark brow raises once he sees the expression on Naruto’s face. “What?”

“Nothing, nothing,” Naruto replies with a quick shake of his head, earning another questioning look from the other man. Then after a convincing pause, he sighs as if finally giving in. “You just seem like you’re not enjoying yourself, that’s all. Are you disinterested in Lady Haruno? Did dinner not go well last night?”

Sasuke quirks a brow in his direction. “Dinner went as well as dinner goes. Why would you ask something like that?”

“I heard you and Kabuto arguing last night outside in the hall,” Naruto replies, after glancing around to make sure the man is nowhere close to overhearing them. Can’t imagine that would get a good response from Kabuto. 

“You heard that, did you?”

“Well, duh. The walls are literally paper thin, Sasuke.” The other man hums in agreement, facing forward as they continue to walk further and further away from where the other men are sat. Maybe it’s because they’re unwatched, or there’s something about Sasuke that makes Naruto’s inhibitions go flinging to the win, but he’s unfiltered now. “I was worried about you, but Kabuto didn’t let me go to your room.”

_That _gets an amused huff from Sasuke that Naruto can’t really understand. 

“Do you _care _about me, Naruto?” Sasuke asks, smooth and rich with that familiar glint in his eye that has Naruto grow flustered. _Not _at the way Sasuke looks at him, but because of the ability the other man has a way of twisting the conversation into being about him rather than whatever Naruto’s just said.

Caring about Sasuke is stupid and risky, but the fact his eyes burn from the lack of sleep and the nagging curiosity in the back of his mind is making it difficult for Naruto to convince himself otherwise.

“Stop that.”

The lack of answer is noticeable considering the way Sasuke’s brows pull together, mouth thinning in a straight line at him before shaking his head. Back to the teasing glint in his eyes from moments ago.

“Hm?” The corners of his mouth twitch upwards, continuing to stroll despite the fact Sakura isn’t back yet. He doesn’t turn to make sure Naruto’s still following him, which he is, lest he loses the asshole. “Stop what? I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“_ That _.” Naruto gestures wildly at all of him, growing more and more frustrated with the man the more delighted Sasuke appears from driving him mad. “Looking all arrogant. Not answering any of my questions. Playing with me.”

Sasuke turns his head to face him, leaning against one of the trees, blocked from the rest of the view from the others. “Trust me, Naruto, if I was _playing _with you in the way I wanted, we’d both be having more fun than we are right now.”

Instead of the dark suggestive nature of Sasuke’s tone the other man’s probably not even aware of, let alone intended, Naruto chooses to blame the glaring heat of the sun for why his entire body erupts into flames. 

_Focus _. If Jiraiya was aware of how easily Naruto allowed himself to be distracted by the Uchiha, he would’ve been drowning in disappointment. 

“You’re not going to tell me what the fight was about then?”

“Maybe one day I’ll tell you,” Sasuke replies with a sigh, sounding bored again. “It wasn’t about Lady Haruno, if that’s your main concern. Dinner with her, Jiraiya, and Orochimaru was fine and uneventful. I simply had too much to drink.”

“Is that it then?” Naruto asks, steering the conversation back to the original point despite the fact he wants to dig in and find out more. Uncover the mysteries of the people within this house, namely Sasuke. For a moment, he swears there’s a flash of disappointment in the other’s dark eyes, but it must be a trick of the light. “Sakura’s boring?”

“No longer Lady Haruno?”

Naruto blushes. “Uh, sorry. We grew up together and it’s hard to keep remembering the title and—”

“I didn’t know you two grew up together,” Sasuke says. “That’s interesting.”

_Crap _. He probably wasn’t supposed to let that slip. Being around Sasuke makes him feel like such an amateur, and Naruto _hates _it more than anything else. 

Although maybe he has a way of spinning it in his favor.

“Heh, it’s not that interesting, really. Lady Tsunade and Jiraiya have known each other a long time, so we’d always hang around together since we were little. We’re basically best friends.” Naruto rubs at the back of his neck, smiling at the other who continues to watch him, study him. “It’s kinda funny, though. Sakura’s not usually like this—all shy and everything. I think she really likes you.”

For the first time since he’s known Sasuke, the other finally piques an interest in regards to Sakura. “What is she normally like?”

“Loud, really talkative. Kinda mean. Punchy, too,” Naruto lists off one of the key factors, and halfway through he realizes that’s not exactly talking her up. “I mean, obviously she’s beautiful, you’ve seen her, but she’s more than too. Sakura’s a good person, sought out Tsunade because she wanted to help people, heal them. Every time I’ve ever had a problem, I knew I could go to her because she’d listen to me and tell me to get off my ass so we could fix it _together. _”

Sasuke hums in thought, and Naruto can see the way he mulls over his words from the way his eyes glance downwards, thumb smoothing over his chin. After a moment, he tilts his chin up, gaze meeting Naruto’s in a way that has Naruto’s heart thumping hard against his ribcage. “Do you trust her?”

“With my life,” Naruto answers without hesitation.

A silence falls over them again. One that leaves Naruto wondering if he’s played this all wrong and has managed to effectively ruin all chances for the plan to continue.

“Okay,” comes Sasuke’s reply after several long, unending seconds, finality in his tone. 

For a moment it looks as if he’s about to say more, but nothing comes. Instead he pushes himself off the tree, tilting his head as a silent command in the direction from which they came. Naruto follows after him without a word. If he speaks, he’s not quite sure what would come tumbling out of his mouth. 

Once they arrive to the front of the garden, Sakura and Karin are making their way down the steps, and Sasuke offers a palm outwards for her to take. Sakura flashes a look in Naruto’s direction, impressed, before darting her gaze back to Sasuke’s outstretched hand and taking it in hers. The two of them head towards the shady area where Orochimaru and Jiraiya are sat, Jiraiya calling them from where he’s sat to join them for tea.

Naruto stares after the two as a strange, unsettling feeling uncurls deep within the pit of his stomach.

—

Rare moments where Jiraiya has an opportunity to speak with Sakura and Naruto are few and far between. Once in a while, when Orochimaru calls everyone in the household besides the three of them into his study are the only few moments they have. 

“Just checking in on my favorite kids,” Jiraiya says gleefully as Naruto and Sakura take a seat onto one of the many couches splayed out in the room they’re huddled in. It’s barely past noon, but Jiraiya has the dazed look of tipsiness in his eyes that Naruto can easily recognize. “How’s progress with the Uchiha brat coming along?”

Sakura runs a hand through her hair, letting the strands fall haphazardly on her face. “At first he was like a brick wall, but whatever Naruto told him the other day has made things go more smoothly. Talking to him now doesn’t so much feel like a branch shoved up my ass, but more like a small twig.”

After days of enduring the shy and painstakingly polite version of Sakura for the past week they’ve been here, the sudden return of his best friend makes him burst out into a fit of laughter that Sakura soon joins in with her own fit of giggles. Even Jiraiya lets out a snort, amused at the knowledge Sakura’s probably been holding all of that in and _more _since their arrival. Naruto didn’t realize just how much he’s missed her until now.

“Great, great, that’s what I like to hear.” Nodding his head, Jiraiya does a quick glance around the room, and once he’s satisfied, he leans in close, holding the weight of his body by his hands that rest at the top of his knees. Naruto and Sakura lean in closer to catch what the other is saying. “What I really wanted to talk to you both about is really important now, so listen up good. Orochimaru is… not well. Apparently, he’s fallen ill.”

Naruto blinks, wondering what the hell that has to do with anything.

“I figured as much from appearances alone,” Sakura responds with a small nod. For a moment, Naruto’s about to ask how the hell she knows that, but then he remembers she’s one of Tsunade’s greatest pupils and stops himself before asking a stupid question.

“Yes, I also suspected there may have been something wrong with him during our first morning here, but Orochimaru confirmed it to me while over tea.” Jiraiya pauses over his words, reaching for the glass filled to the halfway point, and chugs it back without so much as blinking. “We’re going to travel to Lady Tsunade in order to have him checked up by her, and I know the old bitch wants to see you too, Sakura. Wants to make sure I haven’t let you get killed or gone stupid or anything under my watch.”

“When are we leaving?” Sakura asks.

It takes Naruto a few minutes too long for the reality of Jiraiya’s words to sink in completely, but when they do, a childish panic strikes him at his heart, cutting off the air in his lungs.

“Wait, wait, wait a damn minute,” Naruto cuts in, eyes wide as he snaps his gaze to Jiraiya. “You’re just going to leave me here? What the hell, pervy sage!?”

Jiraiya eyes him sternly, shushing him. “Quiet down before anyone else can hear you, Naruto. What did you expect? You belong to Sasuke now, you can’t just up and leave whenever you want.”

“Yeah, but—but you said it wasn’t actually going to be permanent,” Naruto reminds him, voice tight. Can’t help the way his eyes burn when he speaks. “After this was over, you said I didn’t have to leave you if I didn’t want to after we took his money and my debt was paid. I don’t get it. Why can’t you take me with you?!”

Sakura glances between Jiraiya and Naruto, before settling on Naruto and offering him a sympathetic squeeze of his shoulder. The other man doesn’t offer so much as a glance towards him, electing to take another drink of his alcohol as he breathes out, tired and slow, through his nose.

After a moment, Jiraiya says, “Stop your whining, Naruto. You’re not a child anymore. We will be coming back, but in the meantime you’re to remain here and keep doing what you’ve been doing with Sasuke. Keep convincing him on why Sakura’s the best candidate for marriage.”

Naruto takes a shaky breath, tearing his gaze away from Jiraiya and crossing his arms over his chest, embarrassed. It’s been a while since he’s gotten so emotional over Jiraiya having to leave him, but he chalks it up to the fact he knows travelling to Lady Tsunade may take several weeks, maybe months, and he’s stuck here in a foreign place he’s never been in before with people he’s only known for a week. 

It’s not fair, because Jiraiya and Sakura leaving had _not _been apart of the plan.

“Hey, Naruto,” Jiraiya calls him, nudging under his chin gently with a balled fist until Naruto’s forced to meet his gaze. “You’re my favorite pupil, one of my greatest inspirations I’ve ever had the pleasure of drawing from, hm? Don’t disappoint me now when you’re doing such a good job.”

A sigh escapes past Naruto’s lips then, nodding his head limply as Jiraiya moves to pat the top of his head, pleased. 

There’s no worse feeling than disappointing Jiraiya, and he’d do anything to make sure the older man was happy with him. Not after everything Jiraiya has done and more to build Naruto the man he is today while everyone else wanted nothing to do with him.

“Thank you,” comes Jiraiya’s voice, soft and gentle, unaware of the sudden relief that floods through Naruto at the sound. “You need to go and pack Sakura’s and I’s bags now, and alert the handmaiden too. We’re leaving tonight.”

—

After Naruto puts the last of the suitcases into the trunk of the automobile, after the shared goodbyes, watches with gritted teeth as the car pull away into the darkness. 

Ignores the feeling of Sasuke’s unwavering, curious gaze bearing into him that makes Naruto’s throat go dry, his blood tingling under flushed and heated skin. If he so much as risks a glance in Sasuke’s eyes, he knows in his current state, won’t be able to hide from him.

Overwhelmed with a heart that _feels _too much.

—

“You go quiet when you’re upset,” Sasuke announces the next day, halfway through lunch.

The suddenness of Sasuke’s voice pulls Naruto back into the present moment, his arm jerking and overflowing the cup with the tea he’s currently refilling for the other man. Quickly, as he goes to grab a napkin to clean up the minor spill, Naruto realizes how quiet the dining room is now the majority of the household is gone. Every sound is magnetized, the squeak of the table as Naruto dries, a gentle clink of a tea cup Sasuke brings down to rest on the tiny plate, both of their soft breathing. It unsettles Naruto, actually. Surprises him that he hasn’t noticed until Sasuke’s pointed it out.

Naruto glances up to see Sasuke staring at him expectedly, and the sight of him has him remembering the other man had commented about him. “I’m not upset,” he lies, pulling back and away from the table to stand how he’s supposed to whenever he’s in the main house.

Except Sasuke doesn’t let him. Instead he reaches out to wrap a surprisingly calloused hand around Naruto’s wrist, the warmth of his touch burning Naruto’s skin. Gently, he urges Naruto back towards one of the empty seats next to him. “Thought I told you not to lie to me, Naruto,” Sasuke says, only afterwards releasing his grip when it’s obvious Naruto’s not about to pull away again. “Sit with me and pour yourself a cup of tea.”

“Um, I’m not really supposed to,” Naruto replies, dumbly. Still in a haze on how Sasuke was able to read him so effortlessly.

Sasuke huffs in amusement. “Nobody else is here but me to tell you otherwise, and I said you could. So, come on.” The other man tilts his head up towards Naruto with the vaguest of smirks on his face. “Unless you’re too _nervous _, scaredy cat.”

“Fuck you, bastard,” Naruto retorts on instinct, arising to the challenge in Sasuke’s voice easily. It’s only when he takes a seat does the realization of his words hits him, eyes growing comically wide. “Wait, I didn’t mean that—”

“Of course you meant it, idiot,” Sasuke replies, and impossibly, the other man laughs, sinking back into his chair. The sound is hypnotizing, settles Naruto’s nerves more than the windchimes hanging outside in the garden. “Maybe you’re too up your own ass and don’t realize it, but you’re a terrible liar. Everything you’re feeling you scream it with your eyes.”

Naruto feels the blood rushing towards his face, hot and exposed. Part of him is curious if Sasuke’s telling the truth, if Naruto’s as bad of a liar as he says he is, because really for most of his life he’s had plenty of people fooled. What happened earlier could’ve been an accidental fluke, a one time thing. Nobody has ever come close to really understanding him, and the fact that a practical stranger could do so with such ease made him intrigued and uncomfortable at the same time.

Another part of him wants to hide away, but Naruto knows if he does Sasuke, being the smug asshole he apparently was, would never let him live it down.

“You’re such a fucking asshole,” Naruto opts for instead with a bubbling laugh, elegant as always.

Sasuke flashes an explosively blinding smile, and whatever walls that remained between the two of them were crumbling down into ruin. 

“And you’re an idiot who takes bait too easily.”

Naruto goes to smack at his arm with the back of his hand without thinking, only for Sasuke to shove it away with a force that shouldn’t be so surprising to him as it was. Although he’s not sure whether his strength is more shocking, or how Sasuke’s able to make Naruto disregard every rule he’s made up for himself for how he’d behave around the other man. How quick and easy a curve of Sasuke’s mouth can make Naruto devolve into childish antics. Letting Naruto be himself.

There’s too much of a rush for Naruto to heed the warning signs.

“So?” Sasuke prompts.

“So…”

“Are you upset because Jiraiya left you here with me?” Sasuke asks, bringing the tea cup to his lips and taking a sip, not tearing his gaze away from Naruto for a second. Studying him. “Do you… not enjoy your time here?”

Naruto blinks. “What? No, no, don’t be stupid. Compared to every other place I’ve served at, this is the nicest. I’m actually really lucky to be here.”

Sasuke snorts behind his cup, dry and devoid of any humor, before setting it down. “This place is a prison, Naruto.”

The descriptor has Naruto staring at Sasuke as if he’s gone mad and was speaking in tongues. Compared to the orphanages Naruto’s grown up, where he’s been watched and hounded over as if he were a prisoner rather than simply being forced to be there, this place felt as if it had been pulled straight out of his dream life he’d make up for himself if he were ever adopted.

“What do you mean?”

“I know you’re an idiot, but you’re not clueless,” Sasuke responds with a sharp look in his eye. “Barely can take a shit in peace without having Orochimaru’s eyes on me or Kabuto breathing down my neck.”

Fact of the matter is, Sasuke’s not wrong. Every time Sasuke’s had a scheduled meeting with Sakua, Orochimaru and Kabuto had been there. When Sasuke’s training, the two men are always there within eyeline, watching every movement, every breath Sasuke takes. The other servants had mentioned it, but it took a few more days for the words to truly sink in to Naruto’s psyche until it was undoubtable. 

Briefly, Naruto had wondered if Sasuke was too naive to realize this himself. Apparently Naruto was thinking less of him than he should have. Add that to his crime of being ignorant.

Not everyone’s prisons were the same.

“What are they so afraid of? That you’ll run away?”

“Something like that.”

Naruto glances up at him and notices the small smile on his lips, and with a disbelieving laugh, he asks, “You actually attempted to leave this place?”

“Multiple times,” Sasuke replies. “First time I was twelve, then sixteen, and once again last year when I was nineteen. As you can see, all failed attempts..”

“Surprised they didn’t leave someone behind to watch you.”

“They did.” Naruto raises a brow at that, to which Sasuke shrugs. “Outside of the compound are hired mercenaries to make sure I don’t leave, and if I do, to bring me back by force. Main reason I’ve been unsuccessful all these years.” 

Upon entering the compound, not even Jiraiya made notice of these guards. If they did exist, anyway. Good information to hold onto when they all eventually sneak out and leave this place far behind.

“Why would Orochimaru have so many guards outside?” A pause. “No offense, but I've got a hard time believing all those people are just for you.”

“The man has many powerful enemies,” says Sasuke with a roll of his eyes, ignoring Naruto’s comment. “One of them being the Akatsuki. A hefty bounty is placed only for the equal cost of Orochimaru’s head.”

Naruto swallows hard at the mention of the Akatsuki. Apparently, not only was Jiraiya indebted to them, but Orochimaru had ties to them too. Pretty awful ties considering the great lengths Orochimaru has taken to seal himself away out of the public eye.

“So you’ve never been outside the Uchiha compound?”

“No.”

All these years and Sasuke has been behind these walls, hidden away from the rest of the world. It did nothing to hide him away from the horrors and tragedies of the world, considering what happened to Sasuke’s family when he was so young. Still, Naruto couldn’t help but think there was an innocence there. 

No matter how many books Sasuke read, how cunning and sharp he was, quick-witted and always fast to come up with counter to any slight against him, there are some things that cannot be learned isolated away from everyone. A vulnerability that has Naruto wanting to protect it with everything he has.

The thought has Naruto shifting the weight between his feet, makes the air shift around them. Uncomfortable. 

“Do you want to leave because you’re bored?” Naruto asks to distract himself from the feelings brewing within, curious for the reason why Sasuke would want to leave a place such as this. 

Sasuke glances at him, and instead of answering his question, merely asks, “How did you come to be indebted to Jiraiya?”

“Are you trying to distract me from the question?”

“No,” Sasuke answers, though Naruto remains unconvinced. A knowing expression crosses his features and he smiles towards him as Sasuke sinks back into the chair, making himself comfortable. “To prove it to you, I’ll answer your question when you answer mine.”

Naruto squints. “I asked you first.”

“That’s what I’m willing to offer you.” Sasuke shrugs. “Take it or leave it.”

“Stubborn bastard,” Naruto says and sticks his tongue out, and Sasuke’s smile grows further, softer. “Fine, whatever. When I was little, I was living on the streets after running away from one of the orphanages I lived in. Can’t even remember the name of it anymore, but it doesn’t really matter ‘cause they’re all the same—beatings, hard beds, and shitty food. Anyway, this older kid from back in one of the orphanages saw me at, like, twelve, pick-pocketing, and he wasn’t a kid anymore, had a lot of money now, and offered me a job.”

Sasuke’s so focused in on the story, Naruto can’t glance at him for more than a few seconds without the back of his neck prickling underneath the attention, a smile breaking out on his own face without meaning to. It’s humiliating, it’s making him warm and floaty, and it’s distracting him from finishing the rest of the memory. 

“Go on,” Sasuke urges with a hint of amusement, and Naruto groans, earning a soft chuckle from the other man.

“Shut your face up, you’re keeping me from—ugh, never mind. _Anyway _,” Naruto says pointedly, fiddling with a fork and playing with it between his fingers as he tries to remember where he left off. “Mizuki, the guy I was telling you about, hired me to steal this scroll from this old pervert, right? I had no idea who this guy was, but Mizuki was offering me five hundred yen and I’ve never seen so much money in my life, so of course I did it. Turns out the old pervert was the famous novelist Jiraiya, and this scroll I almost managed to steal before getting caught was an unpublished novel he was working on that Mizuki was going to sell to some collector or whatever. I thought Jiraiya was going to cut my hand off, but he said I could repay him by working for him instead, and that’s how it’s been between us ever since.”

A small hum leaves past Sasuke’s lips, his fingers tapping against the wooden armrests of his chair for a while before he finally speaks. “You did performances of his novels in order to pay off your debt of _almost _stealing from him? Since you were twelve years old?”

“Um, yeah.”

“You never wanted to leave since?”

“Guess not,” Naruto answers with a shrug. “Jiraiya was one of the first adults in my life who ever liked having me around. There was Iruka, too, but people get moved in the orphanages or leave and it’s hard to keep track of everybody… Whatever, it barely even felt like work, ya know? We always had so much fun together.”

“I see,” Sasuke replies, somewhat distant. “If you two had so much fun together, it was rather easy for Jiraiya to give you away to me so quickly.”

There’s a strangeness implication to Sasuke’s tone that has Naruto bristling at the comment, instinctive to defend Jiraiya’s decision. Before he does, thankfully, he reminds himself Sasuke can’t know why it would seem this way, so he begrudgingly lets the argument go, and instead chooses to focus on the strangeness of his tone. Suspicion? Judgement? Except Sasuke hasn’t been one to be anything but blunt in regards to Naruto, at least from what he’s seen. 

No, if Sasuke had felt suspicion of Naruto’s intentions, he would’ve laid it out between the two already. This is something else. Naruto’s unsure what it is, but there’s the instinct with him to push forward, find the answers. 

A voice in the back of his head whispers that if he tugs at this particular thread, everything Narutos’s weaved up until now will unravel all around him. 

Instead, Naruto says, “You have to answer my question now, Sasuke. Why do you want to run away from your home?”

“Truthfully, this place hasn’t been my home for a long time,” Sasuke answers, bluntly. “I’m not bored, or tired, or particularly as unhinged as some within this house would have you believe. The longer I stay here, the more of my life wastes away. Eventually all that will be left of me will be my bones to join the rest of family buried deep within the earth.”

Naruto stares at him, wide-eyed, and for the first time unable to speak. 

Glancing towards him, a small smirk splays across Sasuke’s face as he says, “Before I join them, however, I have other plans.”

“What plans?”

“Bring back the Uchiha clan, of course.”

Ah, so that explains why after years of isolation, Orochimaru would allow visitors at all. Not only that, but why Sasuke had been so indifferent to the wife selection at the beginning. There’d be no reason to determine if their was chemistry, feelings, any love between the two parties. Anyone capable of fulfilling that role would serve that purpose.

Something about that unsettles something within Naruto greatly. 

Sasuke, of course, manages to pick up on it. “You seem displeased at that.”

“I’m not displeased,” Naruto argues, although he already knows that’s not quite the case. Already he can hear Sasuke’s words about being an easy tell when he lies float back in his head, so he huffs, tries to explain himself better. “If it were me, I’d want to find someone I love so my children would see they were born from that. Maybe it’s foolish, but…”

Sasuke’s mouth straightens into a thin line before he takes another sip of tea with a shake of his head. “It’s not foolish to want that. However, in my case, it won’t be feasible either way.”

“Why not?”

“Not yet, Naruto. As much as I would like to explain my grand plans to you, there’s still details to work out.” Bringing the white cloth from his lap to wipe at his mouth, Sasuke lets it fall between them unceremoniously. “We all have our roles to play until then.”

A shiver runs down Naruto’s spine at the thrill the other’s words, though he’s not exactly sure what exactly Sasuke means by it all. Every time Naruto feels as if he’s beginning to make more sense of the other man, Sasuke throws him for a loop, making Naruto feel as if he’s moving further and further away from him.

Unaware he’s frowning until the muscles of his face begin to ache, Naruto comes to a few realizations: 

Firstly, Naruto doesn’t like being in the dark when it comes to Sasuke. 

Second being, Naruto wants to know him, everything about him, understand him so intricately, until Sasuke becomes as familiar to him as a second skin. Wants more and more until there’s no more space between them, until there’s nothing left but all of Sasuke. 

He hates himself for it. 

A whole week of this. Of Sasuke’s burning gazes, unbridled honesty and lingering questions and touches that make his brain go hazy, and the irrevocable urge to crawl inside the other man to make sense of him. The two of them alone, alongside the few servants and apparent guards remaining within the premises. How the hell is he supposed to survive until the others return?

Jiraiya had made a grave mistake leaving Naruto behind.

“Are you coming, Naruto?” Sasuke asks, and Naruto’s head snaps to follow the sound on instinct, sees how the other’s casually leaning against the doorframe. Arms crossed over his chest and staring at him unapologetically. “Suigetsu and Juugo will take care of the mess when they return from the market.”

Nobody else is around to see how he all but leaps after Sasuke, and for once in his life, Naruto’s okay with being left behind. 

—

Outside the sounds of Naruto’s laughter sings along with the cool breeze of approaching autumn.

Sasuke’s eyes lock toward him, glaring. “Shut up, usuratonkachi.”

“That was the worst shot I’ve ever seen in my life!”

“Because you threw a twig at my head!”

“Excuses, excuses,” Naruto replies with an easy grin, shrugging from where he sits, cross-legged and a decent distance away from the targets Sasuke’s using for practice. “I thought a skilled archer such as yourself wouldn’t be bothered by such distractions, but maybe you’re not as great as you think you are.”

“Nobody deals with having a stick thrown at their head,” comes Sasuke’s remark. 

Naruto smiles brightly, way too pleased with himself. Every time he’s watched Sasuke practicing with his sword or bow and arrow with Orochimaru and Kabuto studying his techniques, the other man’s always so stiff, so serious, and Naruto had wanted nothing more than to break that tight, concentrated look on his face. Whenever Sasuke trains, he focuses in on whatever he’s doing with a tunnel vision that blocks out everything else outside of his line of sight, his goals. It’s as unsettling as it is attractive, and during the few times where Naruto wasn’t working on the grounds, he found himself wanting to bother Sasuke until that look was centered on him instead. 

Without the other men present, Naruto’s free to terrorize Sasuke as much as he wants. Riling Sasuke up came so easy to him, so natural, that it had become a bit of second-nature. A couple of times, Naruto’s sure he’s been close to cracking a smile out of him, or having an arrow shot in his direction. 

Sitting here for the past thirty minutes has become a bit boring, so Naruto would’ve preferred either as long as Sasuke was paying attention to him. 

“They should,” Naruto says with a playful shrug. “Maybe then they’ll be… Whatever is past a master level.”

“Idiot.” Sasuke rolls his eyes, and pauses for a brief moment, before his lips twitch upwards at whatever thought entered his mind. “I’d like to see you do better.”

There’s no mistaking the challenge in Sasuke’s words, the promise of competition lingering in the air and alighting a fire roaring to life between their locked, eager gazes. 

It’s obvious bait, but Naruto’s never been one to back down from any challenge, especially one coming from Sasuke.

“You’re on, bastard.”

Naruto stands up from the ground, swatting at the grass and dirt stuck on his butt with the palms of his hands before he stretches his arms over his head, his legs, until he’s loose and limber. Without looking, he can feel Sasuke’s stare on him, and when he glances up there’s a pleased look on his face before he rolls his eyes, jerking his head for Naruto to join him where he stands. 

As Naruto slows from a jog the closer he approaches the other, Sasuke offers him the bow which Naruto takes while sticking out his tongue. It’s only when Naruto adjusts the bow into position does he stall and realizes he’s _fucked _, because he’s never shot an arrow a single day in his life.

Why the hell did he choose _archery _of all things to show off to Sasuke? Why couldn’t he have been challenged to stealing a wallet or forging counterfeit money instead? Stupid, stupid, stupid—

“Something the matter, Naruto?” Sasuke asks, and he doesn’t need to glance at the other man to know he’s smirking, all too pleased with himself.

“Of course not. Shut up and be amazed.”

“I’m holding my breath.”

Naruto shoves at him, not missing the laugh that tumbles from Sasuke’s mouth, so easy and free. If he focuses on the sound, he’ll lose his focus, so instead Naruto reaches forward and snatches the arrow from Sasuke’s hand. Aligning the arrow in a similar way to how Sasuke’s done before, he closes one eye, focusing on the center of the target, tugs back until the string is tight, and releases the arrow as it flies…

Right into the hedges.

Sasuke’s laughter is uncontained now, rocking through his entire body and lighting his face with how bright his smile is. Despite the flush of Naruto’s cheeks and the way he elbows Sasuke in the side, he’s not as embarrassed as he should be, too distracted by Sasuke’s beauty to be anything other than smitten. 

The spell is broken when Sasuke utters between laughing fits, “That was the most terrible shot I’ve ever seen.”

“Whatever!” Somehow his voice cracks in a way it hasn’t since he was a teenager, cheeks burning, so the next words come out muttered. “Damn wind threw me off.”

“Excuse, excuses,” Sasuke teases, throwing back Naruto’s words from earlier back in his face. Before Naruto could bite back with a string of curses or smacking at Sasuke’s chest again, Sasuke steps behind him, warm hands on Naruto’s hips and gripping him with a squeeze. “I’ll show you how to do a proper stance.”

Naruto’s face is on fire, and he’s grateful Sasuke’s behind him so he can’t see how red his cheeks are. “Um, sure, I guess you can—I mean, whatever. Get on with it.”

“Bossy,” Sasuke’s breath hits the back of Naruto’s neck, soft and teasing, eliciting goose bumps along the expanse of skin. 

“You are so… _stupid _.”

Another _humph _of amusement leaves past Sasuke’s lip, and Naruto can feel it in the way the other’s chest expands to release the sound. Sasuke’s grip on his hips adjusts Naruto’s stance, feet shoulder-width apart, and his fingers dance along the side of his body over his shirt leaving behind a trail of tingles of where Naruto can still feel the ghost of his touch. Gently, he repositions his hands on the bow, makes sure his elbow is pointed at the right angle, before taking another arrow from his pack slung over his side into Naruto’s hand.

Naruto swallows hard as he takes it with shaking fingers that only worsen when Sasuke’s hands smooth their way back to his waist, the warmth emanating from the other man seeping past his clothes, voice deep and controlled when he says, “Take a breath and relax yourself before you take your shot. Release the tension in your body. Then let go of the arrow.”

It’s too many damn instructions for Naruto to focus on with Sasuke this close to him, but he bites back the comment and does as Sasuke says. 

The arrow springs from his grip at a record speed, can feel the whoosh of the air brush against his cheeks as it flies forward. In the distance, an all too familiar voice yelps in surprise, causing Naruto to snap his eyes open.

“What the fucking hell?!” Suigetsu screams, and the sound of laughter, Juugo’s most likely, follows afterwards. “An arrow nearly got me, Sasuke, you fucking shithead!”

Behind him, Sasuke’s whole body shakes, and when he turns around to face him, eyes wide and biting back his own laugh, loses it when he sees the other’s feeble attempts at doing the same.

“At least that time it was straight,” Sasuke says between snickers. “You and archery, though? Not quite a match.”

Naruto laughs, uncaring, and reaches for another arrow. “Whoops, I accidentally kept my eyes closed. Next time I’ll get it for sure, believe it!”

“You can’t keep your eyes shut when you’re firing arrows, moron!”

“Give me the damn arrow, Sasuke!”

“Get the hell off me!”

The two of them struggle over the bag strapped over Sasuke’s chest, and Naruto’s not sure if it’s because of the kick he gives at Sasuke’s ankle or the way Sasuke’s elbow shoves into his side, but the two of them topple over each other until they’re colliding onto the grass below. Naruto doesn’t even feel the pain, too focused on stealing another arrow from Sasuke to prove himself, laughing all the while as he grips at Sasuke’s arm and twists between his hands, yelping loudly when Sasuke’s free hand shoves at his face. 

Both of them give their all, sweat building at Naruto’s forehead as the two of them roll around in the grass, leaves and dirt sticking on their arms and faces, out of their hair. For a moment, Sasuke has him effectively pinned, but Naruto refuses to lose and bites down on Sasuke’s arm, making the other hiss and pull back just enough for Naruto to roll them over until Sasuke’s underneath him, legs on either side of Sasuke’s body, pinning him down effectively with a strong grip. 

For a long moment, there’s only the sounds of the two of their labored breathing intermingling together. Sasuke’s face is flushed and covered in a thin sheen of sweat glistening under the sunlight, hair sticking up in every direction. The sight of him has Naruto swallowing a lump in his throat, mouth watering at the sight of him. Can feel the way Sasuke’s chest rises and falls below him, finally slowing, but doesn’t relent on his grip even though he knows he should.

“I win.” It comes out of Naruto’s mouth without thinking, because he can’t help himself. Has never been anything but a sore winner and loser. “Bastard.”

“You’re filthy,” comes Sasuke’s response, breathless. 

It takes Naruto a moment too long for him to realize Sasuke had meant the words literally. Too many years of listening and performing to Jiraiya’s stories has apparently made his brain jump to those more perverse places within his mind rather than the obvious, less insinuating truth. Naruto needs to get off him. The longer he waits, the more his brain turns into mush, but he’s transfixed, hypnotized on how damn good Sasuke looks underneath him looking up at hit him like this _and _—

“Sasuke! Naruto!” Suigetsu calls, voice closer than before. “We’re back from the market and I’m letting you know I’m not cooking dinner because of the very traumatic experience of almost dying a few minutes ago!”

Sasuke’s fingers, that Naruto hadn’t realized were resting on his thighs, digs into Naruto’s flesh and has him bowing his head as all the blood rushes from his brain down south, while a huff of annoyance leaves him. Next time their eyes meet, faces merely inches apart, Sasuke’s eyes dart down to Naruto’s lips for less than a second before it’s gone. With a sigh that almost sounds like disappointment to Naruto’s buzzing ears, he rolls Naruto gently over so he’s no longer on top of him. 

It takes Naruto a few moments to realize he’s supposed to stand now, and when he does it’s on shaky legs. Sasuke glances over at him with a small smirk on his face, friendly and amused, as he reaches forward to pick out a leaf sticking out from Naruto’s hair and flicks it towards his nose, completely unaware of how Naruto’s heart is threatening to break through his ribs.

A little laugh escapes past Naruto’s lips, brain still fuzzy.

“Thanks,” Naruto says.

“Don’t mention it, loser.”

There had been a moment, however brief, where Naruto wanted to lean forward and crash his lips against Sasuke’s. Had wanted to steal a gasp from Sasuke and bring it into his own mouth to taste, feel his pulse fluttering underneath his fingertips as Naruto took his breath away. Kiss him as if Sasuke were his own. 

Wanting to kiss Sasuke had been overwhelming and clouded his judgement, made him see and hear things that weren’t there, couldn’t be there in a million years. Naruto’s job was to be convincing Sasuke to marry Sakura, take his money, and travel around the world with Jiraiya and Sakura like the three had originally planned. And he nearly blew it over a whim.

As sharp and cunning as he is, Sasuke probably had been unaware of just how much of an effect he had on Naruto. The other had not stepped one foot outside of the compound, couldn’t have known the desire in Naruto’s eyes...

What the hell was _wrong _with him?

“You two had some fun while we were gone?” Juugo asks as he and Suigetsu approach the both of them, eyes darting between the Sasuke and himself with a knowing smirk that has Naruto’s skin prickling under the other’s eyes. 

“Nope!” Naruto answers, cutting off Sasuke before he can answer. “Nothing happened and nothing was going to happen. Just a misunderstanding over some arrows.”

Sasuke quirks a single, dark brow in Naruto’s direction, eyeing him as if the other’s suddenly grown another head, but doesn’t question him in front of the others. _Thankfully _, giving Naruto the reprieve he so desperately needed.

Suigetsu merely glances over their dishevelled appearance and says, “I’m not cleaning up after your asses. Go clean yourselves up before you mess up the main house, both of you reek.”

Without so much as glancing in Sasuke’s direction, Naruto doesn’t waste a minute to take the opportunity to bolt.

—

Dinner, much like the next couple of days as the week drones by achingly slow, Naruto spends distancing himself from Sasuke with varying levels of success. 

Having Orochimaru and Kabuto out of the house means Suigetsu and Juugo join Naruto in the main house upon Sasuke’s request, which shouldn’t have surprised Naruto as much as it did. Sasuke’s one of the most lenient employers Naruto has ever served under, so him offering the same to Suigetsu and Juugo isn’t what shocks him the most, but the fact that three of them interact with each other as if they’re friends instead of the professional relationship they should have. When Naruto thinks back to breakfast and how easy Suigetsu, Juugo, and Karin had discussed Sasuke, it makes sense, should’ve clued him in sooner, but seeing the ease and flow of conversations and touches between the three is different altogether. 

Seeing them all together like this makes Naruto wonder, briefly, if Sasuke considers him a friend, too. As quickly as it comes, Naruto squashes that dangerous line of thinking before it can fester.

Luckily for Naruto, Suigetsu and Juugo manage to keep Sasuke busy and occupied as Naruto works to undo this cultivated mess in regards to Sasuke that’s managed to sneak up on him. It’s embarrassing, really, how Naruto has come to recognize the sound the weight of Sasuke’s shoes make against the hardwood floors, can tell the distance between them just from the sound of Sasuke’s voice alone. Only when Naruto knows Sasuke is not alone does he join him, converse with him and smile at him at the right moments, monitoring how much he laughs as to not be excessive. 

Sasuke, thankfully, hasn’t noticed yet. 

Being around Sasuke alone is dangerous. Makes Naruto’s head feel light and dizzy as if the oxygen in the air goes thin whenever the other man’s around, heart in his throat threatening to choke him, palms as warm as the rest of his body and damp whenever the other man’s in his presence. Ever since he’s arrived at this place, it’s been this way between them, but Naruto has like many other things in his life, had successfully ignored the blaring warning signs and opted for the safer route. 

There’s a name for this, Naruto knows, but he dares not to think of it. 

It’s only on the fifth day does Naruto’s rather ingenious plan of avoiding Sasuke falls through to the unforeseen event of October rain. 

Outside the clouds are gray and dark, and the wind has the rain tapping against the glass windows in an arrhythmic melody. All four of the men are stuck within the confines of the expanse of the main house due to the weather, Suigetsu and Juugo strewn about the couches in one of the living rooms enjoying passing a bottle of sake between each other as they enjoy the slow music playing from the radio. In one of the single chairs, Sasuke’s sat and reading a book, brows pulled together in concentration as he reads. Naruto’s laying on his back on the soft carpet, comfortable, when Suigetsu hands him the half-empty bottle.

“Can’t drink anymore. The room’s spinning and I don’t wanna clean out my own vomit from these couches,” Suigetsu mumbles between the fabric of Juugo’s leg and the couch cushion, groaning. “I’m so booored.”

Naruto takes a particularly large swig from the bottle because he’s in the same boat. When he offers it back to Juugo, the man is already asleep, softly snoring. It’s barely noon according to his pocket watch. 

Instead Naruto passes the bottle towards Sasuke, who eyes Naruto momentarily before setting his book aside and switching it for the sake. He watches as Sasuke tilts his head back, the way his Adam’s apple bobs as he swallows a particularly long drink, before he hands it back to Naruto without a change in expression. “Maybe you should follow Juugo’s lead and take a nap instead of annoying the two of us with your whining.”

A little snort escapes past Naruto’s lips against the bottle, and Sasuke glances over towards him with a soft look on his face that has Naruto darting away from him as he takes another drink. 

“Don’t be such a bitch, Sasuke,” Suigetsu replies lazily, yawning as he shifts a little in order to sink more comfortably into the couch. “Nobody likes it besides Naruto here.”

Naruto chokes as the sake makes its way halfway down his throat, leaving a burning aftertaste long after he finally manages it to swallow it down. “Who said I liked Sasuke’s bitchiness?”

“Your face did,” comes Suigetsu’s answer, eyes closed and a cheeky smile on his face.

For some reason when Naruto snaps his gaze back to Sasuke, who’s watching him intently with a hand reaching out for the bottle in his hand, he feels the need to defend himself. “Suigetsu’s drunk off his ass.”

“I know, dobe,” Sasuke replies with a snort. “Just like I’m trying to be if you weren’t being stingy.”

Warmth floods Naruto’s cheeks as he finally relents his hold on the bottle. Not just his cheeks though, but his chest and the pit of his belly also. The tension in his body seeping out of him until he’s loose. Naruto’s always been a bit of a lightweight and had been proud of that, considering it was cheaper to get tipsy off one or two drinks rather than get drunk after spending way too much. 

Next to him, Suigetsu’s soft breathing joins Juugo’s snores in harmony against the rain against the windows. Lying back down on his back, Naruto hums along, fingers tapping along his belly, content and unguarded with the little bit of alcohol flowing through his veins.

For a moment, Naruto forgets why he was tense in the first place, until Sasuke’s voice catches his attention.

“Why have you been avoiding me?”

Naruto stops everything he’s doing, and hesitantly moves to sit up again so he can gauge Sasuke’s expression before he responds. There’s no anger or disappointment lingering on the other’s face, just an earnest curiosity that has Naruto’s tongue taste of bitter shame. 

What Naruto should do is lie, but he remembers Sasuke’s words from earlier rushing back to him with a vengeance.

_Steal or curse at me, I don’t care. Just don’t insult me by lying to me _.

“I don’t trust myself when I’m around you,” Naruto answers, honestly, with a sigh, before falling back down to the ground with a soft _thud _. Instantly regretting it the moment his spine and the back of his head succumbs to a dull pain from the impact.

“That’s strange,” Sasuke replies. From the hollow _cling, _Naruto can tell he’s set the now empty bottle of sake down on the table. “Why is that?”

Naruto swallows hard, can feel Sasuke’s eyes on him despite the fact he keeps his own trained on the ceiling above him. “Do I have to answer you?”

A brief pause falls between them before Sasuke finally answers, “I won’t force you to, but I’d like to know.”

Turning on his side, Naruto wishes he was actually more drunk than he is right now. Would probably be better equipped to handle the situation if he were, maybe. “Maybe one day I’ll tell you.”

“That’s my line, usuratonkachi.”

Naruto snorts softly, the tip of his finger playing around the frayed edges of the carpet. “Did you miss me annoying the shit out of you or something?”

“Or something,” Sasuke replies without missing a beat.

Quiet falls over the two of them as Naruto smiles softly at nothing in particular, simply enjoying the other’s presence for what it is between them. Naruto’s never enjoyed the silence, grows antsy and uncomfortable the longer it goes on, but with Sasuke, he begins to understand the appeal. 

The simplicity in _being _. 

Naruto’s never had this with another person before, not once in his entire life. He didn’t know someone like Sasuke could ever exist before. 

Except this comfort shared between them is not meant for him. It’s meant for another woman, and Naruto can’t allow himself to live in a fool’s dream forever. Not when he knows what’s supposed to happen to the other man.

Which is why Naruto asks, “Are you going to propose to Sakura when she comes back?”

Sasuke shifts in his seat. Naruto can hear so in the way his clothes rustle against the fabric of the single couch, but he dares not look back to see the other’s face no matter how desperately he may want to. “Do you think I should?”

_No _, Naruto wants to say. _Tell us all to leave and never come back here again _. 

“What does it matter what I think, Sasuke?”

“I don’t know.”

There’s an honesty to Sasuke’s voice that has Naruto’s heart twisting in his chest at the sound of it. 

“Either way,” Sasuke says quietly, “I want to know what goes on in that brain of yours, Naruto.”

Naruto clenches his eyes shut, wet and burning, as a hand goes to grab at the fabric of his shirt where his heart is being torn apart from the inside out. One of out a promise and duty to Jiraiya to see this through, and another out of a want to protect Sasuke. 

Before Naruto can answer, there’s the sound of booming thunder and the flickering of lights. When he turns over, the lights flash on and off chaotically as if the electricity surging through the house is screaming before all at once, the lights go out, covering the room in darkness only lit by the daylight outside.

Sasuke curses under his breath, his sillhouette standing from the couch as he mutters, “Fucking power outages. We need to find some candles before nightfall unless we want to be tripping over ourselves when it’s pitch black out.”

A hand outstretches before him in a silent question to join him, and Naruto’s never been more grateful for rain in his entire life.

Whatever lie that was about to leave his mouth could wait until the Jiraiya and the others returned.

—

After Sasuke and Naruto find the necessary oil to fuel their lamps, the two find themselves back in Sasuke’s room searching for candles for dinner later tonight, or in case the oil lighting the lamps runs out. Whatever happens first.

Boxes and containers litter the floor of Sasuke’s room, closet doors wide open and massive. Unlike Naruto’s earlier assumptions about Sasuke’s room being bare, he realizes that most of his belongings have been neatly packed away and stuffed within the doors, out of view. Many of the things within his closet are old toys or clothes he’d long outgrown, family albums collecting dust untouched, and a personal collection of kunai with the Uchiha family crest engraved on the handle stored away for safe-keeping. 

There’s a painting of the family collecting dust in the back. A man with tired eyes and and a woman who bears a striking resemblance to the two children at her feet standing tall in their best adorned kimonos and jewels and satin sashes. Naruto immediately recognizes Sasuke, small with fat little cheeks all but pouting at the painter, dark eyes so expressive. Next to him, there’s a boy a few years his senior, eyes shockingly without much life to them.

“That’s my brother Itachi,” Sasuke informs once he catches Naruto staring. Barely a pause passes between them before he continues, seemingly unbothered. “Died a few years after the massacre. Killed himself out in the courtyard out of guilt after hiding the truth for so many years.”

Naruto’s silent for a moment, brows pulled together in deep thought before he settles on the question burning in his mind. “Your brother couldn’t have been more than a teenager when it happened, right?”

“You would be correct.”

“It’s strange someone so young would be able to be able to commit such an atrocity without any outside help.”

Sasuke eyes him with a look that almost looks impressed, if it weren’t for the subject matter. 

“Don’t _you_ have a keen eye, Naruto.”

That’s all Sasuke bothers to say about that, before he continues his search.

It makes sense in a way why Sasuke would rather lock these memories away from his line of sight. Nostalgia is its own brand of poison.

“Swear I packed some candles in here,” Sasuke mutters, more to himself than to Naruto, tone veering towards the edge of frustration. Understandable considering they’ve been at this for nearly an hour now and still haven’t had much luck. 

Naruto’s leg bounces in agitation, butt cramping at sitting on the hard floors for so long, and makes the executive decision for both of them to take a break. He pulls out the kunai he’s been fiddling with between his fingers for the past twenty minutes, and asks, “Oi, Sasuke. What does your family crest mean? I’ve been here for a while and still have no idea what it stands for.”

Luckily Sasuke takes the bait, glancing over to Naruto’s direction with an amused huff of his breath. “You act like it’s my fault for not telling you when this is the first time you’ve asked. Also, don’t cut yourself, moron. I know how you are when it comes to weapons.”

“I know how to handle a kunai, bastard,” Naruto retorts with a scoff, gripping the handle and in a defensive position as a demonstration, to which Sasuke rolls his eyes at. “So, you going to tell me or what?”

“Are you actually interested in my family?”

“Well, yeah. That’s why I asked, didn’t I?” He shrugs. “I never met my parents, don’t even know their names besides the one they gave me, so I find the history behind crests and lineage kinda interesting.” 

Sasuke stares at him with a deep fondness Naruto knows he’s not making up, considering how soft and open the rest of Sasuke’s face is. The other hums thoughtfully then, eyes darting in concentration before he finally says, “I was little when my mother and father taught me about the history of my clan. Back then, I didn’t have the appreciation for the knowledge as I do now, so the details are hazy and jumbled together.”

Nodding in understanding, Naruto’s about to offer a detour in the conversation, allow Sasuke to change subjects because he knows how uncomfortable it could be to not have a history, let alone forgetting the details of one. Except Sasuke doesn’t so much as blink or pause, and it has Naruto staring at him with an appreciation that’s not new, but stronger. As if the feeling that’s been gently lapping at him now breaks against him like the crash of a wave.

“What’s always stuck with me is that according to legend all Uchiha are born with a single flame burning in their hearts,” Sasuke says, sounding almost wistful. “Our blood fueled the flames and made us burn so bright, we became an inferno.” 

Naruto’s eyes are wide and the large smile on his face makes his cheeks hurt, but he barely notices because he’s so entranced with Sasuke’s words, the way he carries them as if sharing a proverb rather than a mere story. “I can see that for you.”

“You can?”

“Yeah,” Naruto nods enthusiastically. “Whenever you’re around, you just… Radiate this heat, ya know? Every time I’m near you, I feel hot, like the room’s on fire and you’re at the center of it, but it’s not uncomfortable or anything. It’s comforting and warm, like staying under the covers in bed for too long. All I can feel is you.”

After the words leave him, Sasuke’s eyes are on him, and that familiar heat he’s just described envelops him once more. It’s overwhelming and suddenly Naruto can’t help but feel overexposed, being peeled apart layer by layer under those eyes. 

So when Sasuke speaks, soft and low and just for him, he listens.

“Whenever I’m around you, I feel the same,” he says, like sharing a secret. “Being around you reminds me of that feeling I once had when my family was still alive and breathing. Not quite the same, but close enough to where the difference doesn’t matter.” 

The words form around Naruto’s heart and he doesn’t believe they’ll ever leave him.

“You’re going to make an amazing husband someday,” Naruto says without thinking. 

A laugh escapes Sasuke, sudden and surprising from the way he brings a hand to cover his mouth. Naruto wants to reach out and take his wrist in his hand, wants to see all of Sasuke, like this. 

Once the laughter dies down into the lingering huffs of breaths Naruto’s used to, Sasuke shakes his head and says, “I don’t know the first thing about being a husband.”

“I just know, okay?” Naruto half-shouts, a little flustered by Sasuke’s earlier laughter catching him off guard. The other scoffs and rolls his eyes in disbelief, dismissing him, and Naruto shifts closer towards the other man with a knowing grin plastered on his face. “Trust me, okay? Just be yourself and you’d literally have any woman falling for you.”

Sasuke rolls his eyes, shoving at Naruto’s shoulder when Naruto wiggles his eyebrows towards him. “You’re an idiot.”

“Asshole. I’m just saying you must have had women throwing themselves at you, I mean, look at you.” Naruto gestures towards Sasuke with his hand, and the other raises a single brow towards him, curiosity splashed in with the unimpressed expression. “Geez, you act like you’ve never been with a woman.” 

“Because I’ve never been with a woman before, moron,” Sasuke responds, like it’s obvious. 

And god, Naruto’s so stupid because it _should’ve _been obvious to him. Why Sasuke’s been so distant and uncomfortable around Sakura, why he’s been so hesitant about finally proposing to the other girl. 

Everything makes sense considering Sasuke’s never had the chance to experience and learn about women since he’s been forced to stay within the walls of the compound, hasn’t had anyone to teach him about women and their desires like Naruto did with Jiraiya. Poor guy. 

“Oh,” Naruto says quietly, not backing away from the other man despite how he quirks a brow at the lack of distance. “I didn’t realize you were… If you’re curious about what it’d be like, we could…”

Under the soft light of the oil lamp, the shadows of Sasuke’s face only make his eyes look darker, more intense. “We could what, Naruto?”

“I can tell you what it’s supposed to be like,” Naruto continues, eyes meeting Sasuke’s own, unwavering. “Being with a woman.”

Sasuke glances over him once, the familiar challenging glint flashing in his eyes, the curve of his smirk, almost on the edge of dismissing, when he says, ”Naruto, you don’t seem like you’d know anything of what it’s supposed to be like on the night of the wedding.”

“Oi, bastard!” Naruto smacks at the other’s arm with the back of his hand, pride wounded at the slight against him. “You’re the one who doesn’t know anything about women! I’ll show you!”

“You’ll show me?” Sasuke asks, smirk growing wider, amusement dripping from his tone. “Prove it.”

When Naruto leans forward and presses his lips against Sasuke’s own, the other’s body stiffens, as if he’s surprised Naruto actually kissed him. It has Naruto smiling tauntingly against Sasuke’s warm, surprisingly wet and soft lips, a huff of laughter exhaling through his nose, cheeks warm and heart fluttering within his ribcage from the brief contact. 

Not even a moment later and Sasuke’s deepening the kiss that has Naruto’s lips parting, licking into his mouth at the offering before him, tongue hot and heavy in his mouth flicking to taste more of him. One of his hands move from Naruto’s jaw to the back of his head, rough fingers that drag from the base of his neck and into his hair. Touching and feeling as if he’s exploring Naruto, savoring him.

A single kiss already has his head spinning, and Naruto’s fingers grip at the fabric of Sasuke’s shirt, bunching it within his fists as he tugs the other closer until they’re chest to chest so Naruto can take back a bit more control. 

Back and forth the two of them move, lips smooth and warm and wet as they fold against each other’s. 

“That’s how you should kiss Sakura on your wedding night,” Naruto mumbles against Sasuke’s mouth, once he drags himself away from kissing Sasuke in order to catch his breath. “Just like that.”

Sasuke’s thumb caresses the skin of Naruto’s cheek in small circles, quiet. For a moment, Naruto believes he’s going to pull back, leave it at that, but he only shifts closer to Naruto and asks, “Will she be as responsive to my touch as you are?”

The words alone has Naruto’s toes curling into the carpet underneath him, heat swirling in the pit of his gut as he nods. “Anybody would.”

Humming softly, Sasuke tugs at Naruto’s hair enough so that his head is angled higher, throat exposed and more accessible. Lips dragging along the expanse of his skin, places a few open-mouthed kisses on the underside of his jaw, trailing the vein of his neck as the tip of his nose presses against the skin. 

Naruto swallows hard, eyes clenched shut as he wills himself to steady his rapid heart, and finally asks the burning question, “Do you want to keep going, Sasuke?”

“Obviously,” he breathes out. “Don’t you?”

Instead of responding and giving himself away, Naruto moves so he’s unbuttoning Sasuke’s shirt, pushing it past his shoulders as he tosses it aside. Hands working to get rid of Sasuke’s pants efficiently, as he leans forward and crashes his lips to kiss him again, swallowing the chuckle that has the hairs on his arms standing straight, tugging Sasuke up and up until they’re both standing. Belt clattering to the floor, his trousers follow after into a pile at Sasuke’s feet, and Sasuke’s too focused on kissing him back he doesn’t notice that he’s being pushed towards the bed until the back of his knees hit his mattress, landing on his back with a soft thud.

Mouth watering at the sight before him, Naruto dips down and brings his hands to grip under the hard muscle of Sasuke’s thighs, hitching them up as he hoists him up further onto the bed until he’s at the center. Naruto hovers over him, taking in the flush of his cheeks, how the dark waves of his hair splay out, eyes dark and hungry. 

Takes all of Sasuke’s beauty in while he has the chance. If he thinks too long, Naruto knows he’ll go insane.

Naruto dips his head downwards drags his lips against the expanse of his chest. Wraps his mouth around a pert, dusky nipple into his mouth and swirls his tongue around it until it’s hard and Sasuke’s hissing under the attention, moves to do the same to the other as his hands smooth over Sasuke’s thighs, forcing them apart. Naruto places wet, heated kisses down his chest, nosing at the trail of dark hair that retreats underneath the hem of Sasuke’s underwear that Naruto pulls down effortlessly, freeing him.

“You’re already so hard,” Naruto teases, breath hitting against Sasuke’s cock and notices the way a drop of pre-cum is building at the slit. Darts his tongue out and the bitter, salty taste overwhelms him and has him wanting more. 

Always wanting more of Sasuke shouldn’t come as such a surprise to him as it does.

Sasuke’s mouth is open, ready to respond with some snarky comment or another, when Naruto takes him fully into his mouth and steals a gasp from the other instead. Smiling around him, the taste of him heavy and hot on his tongue has Naruto wrapping his lips around him, sucking, already eager to steal more of those sounds again.

Fingers dart into his hair and grabs fistfuls of his hair, tight at the root but not pulling, simply holding Naruto there. It’s grounding and has Naruto moaning around his cock, making Sasuke twitch in his mouth and all he does is sink lower and lower, dragging his lips down and feeling the way the other man leaks into his mouth. 

Naruto thinks about making Sasuke come in his mouth, swallowing him whole. Own needs be damned.

Before he can do more, Sasuke’s dragging him away from his cock and tugging him forward, pulling himself up and crashes their lips together once they meet in the middle. “Wearing too many clothes,” Sasuke breathes out, hands smoothing up his sides and with a quick motion, tears open his shirt, uncaring for how the buttons fly and clatter onto the ground. Naruto moans into his mouth, already undoing his belt and undoes the button of his pants, already dragging them and his underwear down which Sasuke removes fully with one slick motion. He barely has to think before Sasuke’s shoving him onto his back and he’s landing on all too soft, fluffy pillows.

They kiss again as Sasuke’s hands move over him, tugging at one of Naruto’s nipples and rolls his hips until their cocks rut against each other, hot and slick and _so good _. Naruto jerks his hips forward, sweat already building at his brow from the way the room rises in temperature from their bodies.

“God, just like that,” Naruto breathes out as one of his legs wrap around the back of Sasuke’s thighs to force him closer to him. Hands dragging along Sasuke’s burning skin, feeling the muscles moving underneath with ever roll of Sasuke’s hips. “You’ll need to make sure she’s wet…”

Sasuke lowers his head to catch Naruto’s nipples against his teeth, sending a shock wave of heat down to his groin. Wet, open mouthed kisses trail further and further down, quick and almost as desperate as Naruto feels. Lower and lower until all Naruto sees is the top of Sasuke’s head.

“Grab the oil on the bedside table,” Sasuke commands, hot breath hitting against his cock. Naruto reaches outward to grab it, unthinking, just as Sasuke wraps his arms around his thighs that has Naruto flexing under his grasp.

Just as his hands wraps around the bottle, Sasuke’s licking at his entrance, making Naruto moan and the oil nearly slipping out of his hands. Hips jutting forward, Sasuke’s arms merely tighten its hold around him, tongue working him open and splitting him apart and making Naruto wiggle in his grasp.

“Fuck, fuck,” Naruto whines as Sasuke’s fingers pull his cheeks apart, tongue flicking along his walls. Every single nerve is alight, and Naruto’s trying to push down against his face. He’s still trying to figure out how it’s so much but not enough at the same time.

One of Sasuke’s hands drag from his ass along the inner side of his thigh and towards the V of his hips, until he turns his hands over, palm outstretched. When Naruto glances down at him and sees the darkness of his eyes trained on him, he tries to grab the bottle again to hand it back to him.

Sasuke pulls back, mouth red and swollen and wet, smirk plastered on his face, Naruto has to steady his breathing from the sheer obscenity of it all. “I’m barely in you yet and you’re already falling apart.”

“Shut up, bastard,” Naruto says with a laugh, and tries to focus as he passes the bottle back to him. Wants to reach down and kiss his filthy mouth, but instead settles with watching as Sasuke pours the oil onto his fingers, and tosses the half-empty bottle back onto the bed. Too fucked out to ask about it. “You’re still new at this.”

“And you’re still an idiot,” Sasuke retorts, pushing a single slicked finger in Naruto. From the sharp intake of breath, Sasuke’s eyes glitter and his smirk only grows wider as he drags the single digit against him, slow and torturous as he adds another finger, all too pleased with himself. “Like _this _, Naruto?”

Before Naruto can think of a witty comeback to Sasuke’s teasing remark, Sasuke’s scissoring him open with a precision he couldn’t have only picked up on now. Stretching him open on his fingers, careful to avoid that spot within him as if he already knew it was there. Naruto’s rocking back against him, trying to take more of him in, but Sasuke’s quick to nip at his thigh as if in warning, earning a keen out of him as Naruto spreads his legs further apart. 

“Eager.” Naruto can not only feel the hot breath, but Sasuke’s smirk against his cock as well. A thumb circles around his hole as a third finger slips in with the rest, the burn of the stretch having Naruto’s head fall back in pleasure. “You’re taking it so well…”

Naruto’s face burns bright at the praise, his breath catching in his throat. Sasuke notices, considering the way he mumbles more and more praises into the nook of his thigh, occasionally sucking little marks there.

Any longer and Naruto’s not going to make it. Sasuke’s reached inside him and can read him so intimately, it’s a miracle he’s not coming right now.

“Sasuke…” Naruto whines, hands grabbing at his hair and tugging at the locks.

It’s all he has to say, because Sasuke’s kissing the same spot where he’d left a mark previously and pulls out his fingers with a noise that has Naruto’s belly tightening at the obscene sound. Sasuke’s only response being, “I know.”

The moment Sasuke’s pulling himself up, Naruto’s rolling them over and wrapping his arms around Sasuke’s neck to keep him upright. Naruto’s mouth is on Sasuke’s in an instant, moaning into the kiss once he tastes himself, and from the way Sasuke’s fingers dig into his hips and drags Naruto so he’s sitting in his lap, he’s experiencing the same. It’s a slow drag of his hips, Sasuke’s cock catching against his rim, and Naruto’s nipping at Sasuke’s bottom lip as he does it again, slower this time, in order to give him the hint. 

One arm wrapped around the small of Naruto’s back, another reaching down between them to stroke his dick a few times before lining it up at Naruto’s rim. Dark blown out eyes glance up at Naruto, as if asking for permission, before Naruto leans forward to catch him in another searing kiss as he sinks down onto him. Taking him further and further in, both of them breathing heavily against each other, until he’s fully seated down and he’s full of Sasuke.

Together they’re completely still, as if any sudden movements would snap them out of this dream and back into reality. Chests pressed so tightly together, Naruto wonders if Sasuke can feel the way his heart beats for him. 

“You’re trembling,” Sasuke mumbles into his neck, voice strained with an effort. His lips ghost over the vein of Naruto’s neck, his collarbone, and Naruto can feel the way his breath hitches against his skin. “Are you in pain? _Naruto _…”

The sweetness of Sasuke’s voice has him clenching down on him, stealing a hiss of pleasure right from the other’s lungs. If Naruto hears the way his name sounds on Sasuke’s tongue like this, he’ll never be able to recover. 

Naruto swivels his hips to test the waters, and Sasuke’s fingers are digging into his sides so tight he hopes they will leave behind bruises. Reminders that this happened between them, that this was real—if only for a moment. With a slow rise of his hips, he drags himself back down, the sweet drag of Sasuke’s cock against him making Naruto bury his face into the crook of the other’s neck as he does it again and again. Sasuke thrusts forward to meet Naruto’s movements, and soon they’re both moving in sync into an increasing speed, chasing the rhythm that has Naruto’s thighs flexing and pulling pleased sounds from the base of his throat. 

Chest to chest, their bodies sliding together and moving in tandem, Naruto’s heart is beating wildly in his ears. Latches his mouth onto Sasuke’s shoulder, biting down when Sasuke’s helping him up only to slam him back down. The sharp, wet sounds of skin meeting skin. It’s the closest they’ve ever been together, and Naruto wants to keep him there all for himself.

A particular thrust has Sasuke’s cock hitting at the bundle of nerves inside him, setting Naruto alight. Moans around a mouthful of Sasuke’s flesh, biting down into the meat of his shoulder. Sasuke gasps when Naruto clenches down hard, knocking the air out of him and spearing into him harder, making Naruto move in time without Naruto ever saying a word. Desperate to chase the pleasure.

Sasuke grips at his thighs and has Naruto move to lay on his back, careful, and Naruto lets him until he’s spread across the mattress. Dark eyes meeting his own as grips one thigh tight and spreads him further, while Naruto wraps the other at the back of Sasuke’s legs and drags him close. Each thrust hits him in the same spot, over and over, heat pooling at the pit of his belly as Naruto all but rocks against him trying to meet Sasuke’s hips. Naruto dares not look away, feels transfixed to staring at him, heart in his throat as an overwhelming emotion overtakes him.

It feels like he’s falling.

“Sasuke, I’m—” Naruto starts, cuts himself off with a moan as Sasuke brings the hand from his thigh to his cock, finally touching him there for the first time. His hand moves slowly over him, slick with sweat and precome leaking from his slit, and it’s so good, Naruto’s head is swimming. “Fuck, fuck, fuck… Don’t stop, please, don’t stop… I’m close… I’m so—”

The words spills from his mouth, a mess of pleas and almost declarations trapped behind his teeth.

“I could die happy knowing I got to be inside you,” Sasuke’s hot breath whispers against the shell of his ear, panting as he nips at the lobe.

Sasuke’s words undoes him, and Naruto knows there’s no going back. Too lost in Sasuke to care anyway.

“Don’t leave me,” Naruto breathes out into the skin of his neck like a secret, shuts his eyes tight when Sasuke’s plump lips drag along his temple as he nods. “_ Sasuke _…”

“You think I’d survive if I did?”

Naruto could cry, so instead he drags Sasuke by the hair so he can kiss him with a hunger he’s pretended hadn’t been eating him alive.

Apparently Sasuke must be close to, considering the way he picks up the pace of not just the drag of his hips, but also his hand on his cock. Moving with a skill that has Naruto’s head falling back into the mattress, heat building and building as if he were about to explode. Sasuke lifts his leg up just enough so every thrust hits that spot that has Naruto crying out Sasuke’s name. 

It only takes a few more thrusts and Naruto’s coming, entire body shaking and trembling with it, clenching down as Sasuke’s hips jerk unsteadily, until he’s following soon afterwards, twitching inside of him until Naruto’s feeling all too wet and warm. Together they catch their breaths, uncaring of the fact they’re breathing in each other’s air, Sasuke’s forehead rests against Naruto’s, soft and gentle. Presses a kiss to Naruto’s cheek, the tip of his nose, corner of his mouth, his bottom lip, until Naruto’s giggling breathlessly and Sasuke’s smiling warm against his lips.

Slowly, after they catch their breaths and steady their hearts, Sasuke pulls out of him and Naruto whines at the loss, at the feeling of come and oil leaking out from him. Sasuke gives him a quick peck and whispers for him to stay there while he runs off to get a washcloth and clean him up, and Naruto obliges because he doesn’t think he can move even if he wanted to. 

In all his life, Naruto’s never felt so warm and safe and adored. It’s terrifying. 

As soon as Sasuke leaves him, naked and lying in his bed, the reality of what they’d done creeps at the edges of his mind. Naruto closes his eyes, takes in a deep breath of the sheets he’s found himself entangled with, the scent of Sasuke filling his senses, body still tingling from the aftermath, it settles him with a wave of calm that has his heart fluttering in his chest.

Only now does Naruto admit what he already knows, at least to himself. 

Naruto can’t go through with this plan.

—

A day and a half later everyone returns back to the Uchiha compound. 

Sasuke’s fingers dance along Naruto’s lower back as the automobile slowly pulls forward, skin tingling despite the layer of cloth that separates their skin from the other’s daring touch. Only when the car is nearing the steps of the entryway does he pull back his hand to stay idle at his side, leaving Naruto already missing the touch, all of Sasuke’s attention, that will now go from him in order to be given to someone else.

Nobody on the entire planet was a bigger idiot than Naruto. 

As soon as the automobile pulls forward, Naruto rushes forward to open the door and assist Orochimaru and Jiraiya out of the vehicle first, then Kabuto, Sakura, and Karin. The men are chatting idly to themselves as Naruto and Karin opt for the trunk in order to unload the luggage, and just as Naruto pulls out the last of the luggage, he freezes. 

Because before him on the entryway, Sasuke and Sakura are embraced together in a chaste kiss. Naruto’s heart sinks to the soles of his feet and all he can do is stare and stare in hopes the earth will open up and swallow him whole. 

The kiss lasts for a few seconds and then it’s over, neither Sasuke or Sakura looking each other directly in the eyes as Jiraiya whoops and hollers from where he stands. Naruto feels as if he’s going to be sick or erupt into a fiery explosive rage that everyone in the vicinity will feel. 

Sasuke’s eyes meet his own, unreadable, and Naruto tears his eyes away before Sasuke can read him.

Instead he brings his focus onto anything but Sasuke. Finds his attention on Karin instead as he wills his heart to return to some relative state of normalcy, but the strange look on her face has his thoughts coming to a screeching halt. There’s a familiarity he recognizes, considering the harsh pained and angry swirl of emotion in her eyes is one that mirrors his own. Understanding flows between them unsaid before she grabs the luggage and follows after the group that’s made their way inside. 

Naruto hesitates before following her lead.

—

“I don’t want to do this anymore,” Naruto relays at the next meeting. 

Jiraiya and Sakura both raise their heads at the suddenness of his voice, a flash of anger and disappointment in the former’s eyes in his direction. Sakura, on the other hand, stares at Naruto with wide eyes, hanging onto him as if urging him on to continue speaking.

“First Sakura back during the trip, now you,” Jiraiya responds with a shake of his head in disbelief. The man’s agitated, Naruto can tell in the way his fingers shake as he reaches for one of his cigars he keeps inside his coat pocket. “What the hell’s gotten into everybody this past week? Sasuke’s already proposed. All that’s left now is sneaking away without Orochimaru noticing and getting paid.”

Naruto snaps his gaze towards Sakura, brows pulled tightly together when he asks, “Sasuke proposed?”

“At dinner,” Sakura replies gravely with a nod of her head. Under the warm light of lamp post overhead, the ring on her left hand glitters. “You were out with the rest of the servants when it happened.”

Hearing the words again does not make it easier for them to sink in as the truth. Naruto’s whole body is buzzing with a numbness he’s never felt before. 

“Why the hell are you both so gloomy for?” Jiraiya asks, draping an arm over Naruto and ruffling his hair like he used to do when he was younger and upset to distract Naruto from whatever the older man had pulled. All it does not is make Naruto sink further into himself, growing more aggravated. “The three of us are about to be stupidly rich and you’re all acting like it’s the end of the world. Don’t tell me you actually care for this rich brat now, hm?”

Caring for Sasuke only comes close to how Naruto feels, and isn’t so far off from the truth. What Naruto felt for Sasuke could only be described as finding someone who could finally understand him, someone he would lay down his life if only to make the other man smile. Wishes more than anything he could’ve met Sasuke sooner, and maybe there wouldn’t have been this gnawing emptiness in his chest, the longing to not feel so alone. 

Naruto’s in love with Sasuke, and he’s so stupid to think he could ever go through with this this plan. 

“Oh, I know that face,” comes Jiraiya’s voice, knowing and dripping in accusation. “You always get attached to anyone who shows the slightest bit of affection towards you, Naruto.”

“Naruto?” Sakura’s voice is strangely soft and the sound only furthers his resolve.

“Please don’t make me go through with this, sensei,” Naruto says. 

“Whatever you’re feeling will come to pass,” Jiraiya replies, distinct and unfeeling. “Don’t get cold feet now that we’ve come so far, Naruto. If you let this all loose, what do you think will happen, huh? You really think Sasuke will be so forgiving if he comes to learn you’ve been manipulating and lying to him to steal his fortune? That man will throw me, you, and Sakura into the nearest prison and throw away the key without so much of a second glance. You never _think _these things through.”

Naruto blinks, wide-eyed at his master as his face burns in shame. Of course he hadn’t thought about what could happen if the truth would come out, how it would affect not just him, but Sakura and Jiraiya too. All three of them were in this together.

Above all that, he couldn’t stop thinking about how Sasuke would be ashamed of him to know Naruto had used him since the beginning, even if it’s not exactly how it played out near the end. 

Jiraiya squeezes his shoulder and Naruto’s gaze shifts to Jiraiya, who merely shakes his head and gestures to Sakura instead. When Naruto’s eyes land on hers, he can tell the fear in them are real and genuine. “We’re your family, Naruto. The ones who have been with you when nobody else wanted you. Are you really going to throw us to the wolves all the sake for a man who would throw you away so easily if he truly _knew _you and not the act you’ve been putting on for the last several months?”

Apparently Sakura’s had enough, considering the way she finally snaps and says, “Jiraiya-Sama, all of us understand the situation we’ve found ourselves in. Berating Naruto any further is unnecessary and cruel.”

Jiraiya ignores her, clutching Naruto’s shoulders when he asks, “Do you understand you need to keep going, Naruto?”

Narrowing his eyes, Naruto gives one quick nod that makes him feel sick to his stomach, and then shrugs Jiraiya off of him. Only bothering to say goodnight to Sakura before he returns back to the main house to sleep this guilt off. 

Most importantly, try not to think of Sasuke.

—

As soon as Naruto turns down the hall towards his room, Sasuke’s leaning against the doorframe leading to his bedroom, arms crossed over his chest as he takes in his appearance despite the fact it’s late and he already should be in bed. Naruto’s about to tell him as such when Sasuke cuts him off with a question:

“Where have you been tonight, Naruto?”

Sasuke’s voice is soft and concerned, only twisting the knife in his gut further, cutting up his innards. Looking at him only makes it worse. 

“Out,” Naruto replies as he rubs at the back of his neck. Not quite a lie but an omission of a truth, but it doesn’t relieve him of the pressing guilt. “I’m actually really tired, Sasuke. We should sleep.”

“Alright,” Sasuke replies after a moment’s hesitation. Just as Naruto’s about to turn into his room across from Sasuke’s door, Sasuke’s fingers wrap gently around his wrist and tugs him into his bedroom.

There’s something unsteady in the way Sasuke guides him, unusual considering his usual elegance. His hip knocks into the dresser and he lets out a hiss in pain, nearly trips over his own foot after getting caught against the rug. If Naruto didn’t know any better, he’d say Sasuke’s drunk, but even when Sasuke had plenty of liquor in his veins there was a grace still left unmarred. Besides, there’s no stench of alcohol on his person.

Naruto breaches with a question. “Are you doing okay, Sasuke?”

“It’s nothing,” Sasuke answers, surprisingly short. He must notice considering the way the tension of his shoulder blades dissipates, and the terseness of his voice lessens. “Just a long night with Orochimaru.”

“Another headache?”

“Something like that.” There’s a brief pause, Sasuke careful not looking back at him. “Stay with me tonight, hm?”

On first instinct, Naruto would’ve jumped into his bed no questions asked. Except the conversation with Jiraiya and Sakura is still fresh in his mind, and being around Sasuke while Naruto feels the way he does only further complicates matters that should’ve been clear-cut from the beginning. Allowing himself this closeness with Sasuke was supposed to be professional and his incessant need for attention has murked the waters.

Glancing behind his shoulder, Naruto stares at the door for a moment before turning his gaze back to Sasuke. The grip on his wrist hasn’t lessened, Sasuke’s thumb rubbing smooth circles along the pulse point and making it flutter under his touch.

“I can’t.”

Sasuke turns so his face is in profile, the warm lighting making his sharp features softer, all the more painful to look at. “Of course you can, Naruto.”

“Kabuto will be wondering where I’m at if he checks my bed tonight.”

“Don’t worry about him when you’re with me.”

Naruto pulls his hand from Sasuke’s grip unwillingly. That causes Sasuke to finally look at him, and that has Naruto’s heart stopping in his chest at the sight of him—more specifically, his eyes.

Instead of the usual whites of his eyes, it’s bordering on red, as if intensely irritated. There’s a glossy, unfocused glaze to them—even his eyelids red in irritation—that has the earlier movements finally making sense to him. Naruto inches forward while Sasuke pulls back, apparently realizing what he’d just revealed. Not unsteady like his first thought because of any drunkenness, but because Sasuke probably couldn’t _see _.

“What the hell happened to your eyes?” A gentle hand reaches out to cup Sasuke’s face, thumb brushing underneath the beginning puffiness of his undereye and careful not to further irritate him. “Did you spill something? Or…”

“Nothing I can’t handle,” Sasuke replies as if on reflex, tearing himself out of Naruto’s hold. The familiar defenses have come up around him, rigid and unyielding, and the sight of it has Naruto sighing in disappointment. “Don’t worry about it.”

“I _always _worry about you.”

The way the words tear out of his own mouth and laced with a building frustration in his voice that not only surprises Sasuke, but Naruto as well. For a moment, Sasuke lets the words hang in the air between them, before finally speaking.

“What happened, Naruto?”

Despite the way even keeping his eyes open look painful, Sasuke’s ever-present intense, piercing gaze strikes him through the heart. 

“Nothing happened,” Naruto answers, irritated by the sudden change in conversation coming back to him when Sasuke still hasn’t answered him. He turns his head away from him. “Stop looking at me like that. It’s annoying.”

“Hn.” Despite what Naruto tells him, he can feel the other’s gaze still on him, tearing him open and picking him apart until he can understand. Always seemingly knowing Naruto better than he knows himself. “I’m guessing you know.”

Part of him wants to laugh, or cry, at how predictable he is when it comes to Sasuke. How easily the other knows him and he can’t even pretend otherwise.

Naruto doesn’t respond, too afraid of what will come out of his mouth if he does.

In a sarcastic tone, Sasuke merely says, “Here I thought you’d be ecstatic once you heard news of the engagement.”

Snapping his gaze towards Sasuke at the words is a mistake as soon as he does it. Days following that night in Sasuke’s bed had been spent avoiding the topic altogether, but now it was time to face the music the both of them had been blocking out and pretending to live in their own little world they’d carved out for themselves. Now that world is crumbling and staring at Sasuke aches something fierce Naruto never knew he could feel before.

Trying to force a smile on his face feels wrong, so Naruto merely shakes his head with a sigh. No point masking how he truly feels, but at least he’ll make an attempt with his words despite the fact he knows Sasuke won’t believe him.“I am happy for you, Sasuke. You’ve never been happier than you have since Sakura’s returned home—you just caught me at a bad time, I’m tired and I want to go to bed. It’s been a long day.”

For a moment, Sasuke merely watches him and his eyes slowly narrow, closer together now that they’re starting to puff now. It feels as if Sasuke’s peeling him apart layer by layer, as if searching within Naruto in order to make sense of all this.

Eventually, Sasuke asks in a cold and calculating voice, “Do you think I’m stupid?”

“What?” Naruto blinks, caught off guard by the sudden bite of his question. “No, I don’t think you’re stupid. Well, sometimes, but not right now. Now, you’re just annoying.”

“Why are you insisting on lying to me then?” The dam has broken, and all the irritation and rage is spilling out of Sasuke. Except the line between it being for Naruto or for their situation is becoming increasingly unclear. “I keep telling you, Naruto, you’re fucking _awful _at it. So _why _the hell do you keep doing it thinking I’ll be stupid enough to believe you, huh?”

Naruto sighs, clamoring down the beginning of anger that stirs within his gut. Now’s not the time for arguments. All he wants to do is go to bed and push through the last remaining days left until they all leave this house. “I’m not lying to you.”

“You’re not happy I’m engaged to Sakura even though ever since you’ve come here you’ve been insisting and pushing,” Sasuke points out, stepping closer to Naruto as he steps back, trying to put distance between them. “Why do you think that is? Tell me that doesn’t _mean _something more to you, Naruto.”

Something inside him burns.

“Fuck off, Sasuke.”

“Answer me first.”

“You’re in love with, Sakura,” Naruto insists, crossing his arms over his chest and ready to yell at Sasuke’s face until he tricks himself into believing the words. “If you’re not yet, then you will be. Give it time.”

“That girl will never have my love, and you know that already.”

“Then why propose to her, you bastard!?” Naruto cries out unwittingly. His eyes widen afterwards in disbelief, but it shouldn’t be so surprising considering how effortlessly Sasuke manages to curl his way under his skin. 

Sasuke ignores him, continues to poke and prod at the anger within Naruto. “You’re willing to lie to my face and say you’re happy for me when you’re anything but. What the hell is wrong with you, Naruto? Why would you keep pushing when it’s tearing us apart over and over again?”

_Both of us?_

No, Naruto can’t hope for that. Won’t let himself believe there’s even so much as a possibility that Sasuke could ever feel a fraction of what Naruto feels…

Neither of them can _have _whatever this is between them anyway.

“Look at how angry you are,” Sasuke says, reaching forward into Naruto’s space. “You’re still willing to pretend you’re happy for me, even though I don’t love her?”

“This is the way it has to be, Sasuke.” It’s Naruto’s voice, but these aren’t his words and he hates himself for it. Just like he hated the words every time they left Jiraiya’s mouth when Naruto had wanted nothing to do with a plan or a reading. “Stop acting like you didn’t already know what you were signing up for with this. You told me yourself having anything other than a loveless marriage wasn’t feasible for you, remember?”

Sasuke stares him down and says so simply, “Maybe I’ve changed my mind about what I want for my future. Have you ever considered this, Naruto?”

Of course he has. All he’s thought about is Sasuke’s future, about how Naruto’s playing a hand in tearing it all from him for the sake of money and travel. How trivial all these things he believed to be everything seem now.

When Naruto doesn’t reply, Sasuke laughs, bitter and empty. “Will you still tell me to marry her knowing all this? Knowing I love someone else, _Naruto _?”

The way his name sounds on Sasuke’s tongue, low and dangerous, is too much. Naruto thinks it might fully drive him off the deep end.

Which is why he needs to stop this now before he destroys this for everyone involved.

“Yes.”

Sasuke’s face falls for a second, before twisting into a rage unrecognizable to Naruto’s eyes.

“Get out.”

The words are so cold and so unlike Sasuke that it has Naruto freezing at them. It’s the same voice Sasuke uses to the others around the house, but not him.

“What?”

“Get out of my room, Naruto,” Sasuke seethes, angry and pained. When Naruto doesn’t move, Sasuke grips his shoulders, pushes him back until Naruto’s hitting the back of his dresser, eyes wild and squinting at Naruto with effort to see his face. “Get the _hell _out.”

“I’m not afraid of you.”

“Then what are you so damned scared of? You’re not lying to me because you want to, _obviously _.” It’s bitter and pained and he’s bringing a fist to rub at his eye, and if Naruto didn’t know any better, he could swear Sasuke was crying. “So what the fuck is it, huh? Tell me what the fuck is going on so I can understand you, you fucking idiot.”

Naruto swallows back the lump in his throat. Stomach twisted in knots at the pleading in Sasuke’s eyes that Naruto’s never seen in all his months of living here. The fact Naruto’s the one person who’s managed to get this expression out of him does nothing to quell the nauseating shame building in his throat like bile.

But he can’t bring himself to explain, not when Jiraiya was dependent on him to see this through.

Instead, Naruto frowns at Sasuke, lets the frustration that’s been building throughout the night out on him. “You keep telling me to be honest with you, but you refuse to give me the same dignity. Every time I ask you something, you direct it away with another question, or pretend you didn’t hear! I see the fear in your eyes too, but you won’t let me in! You’re in pain right now and won’t even tell me why! How can you expect the same from me, Sasuke!?”

“Don’t you understand I already let you in? Having you here has changed so much and you don’t even fucking realize it,” Sasuke snaps. “That maybe the fear you’re seeing is my own uncertainty?”

“Again not answering me.” Naruto’s breathing is ragged, glaring at Sasuke. “If this is you letting me in, you’re fucking awful at it.”

“You’re an idiot,” comes Sasuke’s voice, deathly calm as he pinches the bridge of his nose. “My loyalties have always been clear from the start. Get the hell out of my room.”

When Naruto doesn’t move, Sasuke makes him. Grabs him by the arm and pushes him out and slams the door behind him, the sound of the lock clicking. 

Sleep doesn’t come for him that night.

—

Paranoia stalks Naruto’s mind throughout the next several days. Despite how massive the Uchiha compound may be, he feels as if he cannot take a step, not even a single breath, without eyes firmly on him in every waking moment. 

When it had solely been Kabuto, it was tolerable. Now Naruto feels as if he’s jumping out of his skin. 

Now Jiraiya watches him, in the corner of his eye when he laughs at the table, or a quick glance when he goes to sneeze. It’s subtle and hardly noticeable to anyone who doesn’t know the man, but Naruto’s been with Jiraiya for years now. Understands the lingering gazes and the meaning behind something as insignificant as a twitch of a finger.

The previous night’s conversation has created a considerable wedge between them. A distance that would’ve torn Naruto apart mere months ago, but now only adds to the numbness spread through his entire being.

Truthfully, Naruto’s mind is elsewhere.

Sasuke appears unbothered, cool-headed in the face of everything. Oftentimes the glazed over expression on his in his eyes will meet Naruto’s, and whether it’s the boredom there or the taxing indifference there, makes him feel as if he’s sinking further and further into nothingness. Sometimes there’s a flash of anger there, and that makes Naruto’s heart jump in his chest, because anger is better than not having any feelings for him at all. Rarely, there’s a flash of sadness that Naruto recognizes so intimately, he longs for the empty look in the other’s eyes instead.

From where he’s stood, Sasuke casually engages in conversation with Orochimaru and Jiraiya, while Sakura stands to the side distracting Kabuto. Giving Karin the perfect opportunity to shove at him, harsh.

“Stop staring, idiot,” Karin says from his side as she collects the dirty dishes from the tea the others had shared earlier, without so much as glancing. “Everyone can read your expression clear as day. It’s pathetic.”

The hedge clippers fall to the ground with a clatter at the sudden accusatory tone of her voice. As he goes to pick them back up, he’s glaring daggers toward her. “Shut the hell up. Like you weren’t staring when you came back anyway, hypocritical hag.”

Karin kicks away the shears away from him just as he’s about to grab them, smirking. “Fangs out today, Naruto? Not my fault reality came crashing down on you and now you don’t know how to handle it.”

“Talking from experience, Karin?” Sometimes when Naruto starts, he can’t stop. All day long he’s had to pretend to be smiling and subservient, but with only Karin in earshot, he’s allowing himself this brief moment of letting himself just be. “Maybe I should actually attempt to be as cold and heartless you try and convince yourself you are. That’ll solve everything.”

“Do you feel better now?” Karin asks sardonically, once the dust between them has finally settled.

After a long silence, he finally relents with a too quiet, “No.”

“What happened?”

Answering that honestly would be a surefire way to get himself monumentally screwed. Lying had been a second nature in the past, but here, it’s beginning to take its toll on him. 

Naruto opts for a half-truth instead. “We had an argument last night over. Sasuke accused me of lying to him, and I told him how could he expect me to be honest with him when he’s been lying to me right back?”

Karin tears her gaze away from him as Naruto returns his focus back on the hedges, once he realized Kabuto’s glances keep trailing back to the two. “Were you lying, Naruto?”

“No,” he lies. 

A small hum leaves past her lips, as if she doesn’t quite believe him. “Honestly, I’ve never known Sasuke to not be overwhelmingly transparent about anything. What were you trying to pull from him?”

“There was something wrong with his eyes,” Naruto says, unsure of how to describe the unsettling sight before him. How unsteady Sasuke seemed to be on his own two feet, bumping into everything which way as if he were nearly blind. “Stubborn bastard told me to get out of his room when I brought it up.”

Karin freezes after she lifts the tray of the dirty dishes upwards, and for a split moment, the sleeves of her dress bunch together down to her elbows, and he sees it. Faint scarring of multiple bite marks along her forearm, and the promise of others higher up the sleeve goes. Once she realizes he’s caught notice, she rushes to pull down the sleeve to hide it, glaring when Naruto reaches a hand out and stops her from doing so.

“Let go,” she hisses through gritted teeth. “They’ll notice you.”

Naruto’s eyes narrow, voice going low. “Who?”

Karin rips her arm out of his grasp as if she’s been burned, the dishes clattering against each other momentarily until she resteadies the grip on the tray she’s carrying. 

“Sasuke ordered us not to tell you.”

“Do I look like I give a fuck?” Naruto hisses, glancing back towards the group who’s unaware of their presence, let alone their conversation. “I don’t care why he’s forcing you to hide this, but—”

“Please, as if he could force me to do anything,” Karin cuts him off. “I promised him out of a personal obligation. What he allows himself to go through for us makes every single one of us loyal to him, and him alone.”

Naruto glances at her wrist as he tries to make sense of her words. _Us _, meaning not just her, but possible Suigetsu and Juugo as well. That first morning where Naruto had felt some unspoken understanding the three of them had with Sasuke, the strange markings and bruises that would appear, the strangeness of this place. 

How on his first day when Naruto had accidentally stumbled in on a private meeting with Orochimaru Sasuke had screamed at him to leave, slapped Kabuto across the face for even sending him in the first place, had warned Naruto to not be alone with Orochimaru for so much as a second.

Everything is becoming clearer with a sickening realization.

“Does this have to do with Orochimaru?”

Rolling her eyes once, Karin’s about to walk off. Naruto steps in front of her, arms crossed over his chest. 

“Look, everything you want to know about this entire fucking place is in the damn cellar,” Karin says, aggravated and on edge. “Whatever you find in Orochimaru’s study, I didn’t speak a damn word about it to you.”

Naruto pauses at the sudden information. “Why are you telling me any of this?”

“Maybe I’m just as tired of all these lies as you are, Naruto.”

“Somehow I don’t really believe that.”

“After your sensei leaves this place behind, not even Sasuke will be able to protect you.” A beat. “_ Or _Sakura.”

With those words left hanging in the air between them, Karin leaves Naruto there without another glance. 

—

Long after midnight, Naruto slips out of his closet of a bedroom and makes his way down the staircase. There’s something about walking through the expanse of these hallways in the shroud of darkness, the house dead and empty, unlike the liveliness during the day, that sends chills down his spine. As if he’s walking through a graveyard.

No matter how careful and light he attempts to walk, the soft sounds of his footsteps along the wooden floors carries in squeaks. 

Naruto’s very presence disrupts the stillness of the silence.

Still, he does not dare turn back. Not when this may be his only chance at finally gathering some answers around here since everyone insists on speaking in riddles or outright refusing to tell him anything.

Living here as long as he has, it does not take him long to find the grand ornate doors leading to Orochimaru’s study. Naruto pauses briefly, tries to focus on any doors creaking due to wandering bodies in the middle of the night, and after several minutes, turns his attention back to the glass doorknob. Hesitantly, he brings his hand forward, half-expecting the damn door to lock him out, send him back where he came from and all this risk being for nothing. 

The door unlatches and gives way as Naruto takes a step forward.

Inside the study is simultaneously remarkable and underwhelming at once. As expected for a curator, there’s the familiar expensive paintings, sculptures, and an amass of artifacts and scrolls protected underneath glass casings Naruto had seen briefly once before. Now that he’s taken his time, he can assume everything in this room at least had to be worst hundreds of millions of yen, if that. Years ago in another life, Naruto’s mouth would’ve watered at the sight, thinking about how even just a handful of these items would set him for life, but now the display of wealth barely held his attention for more than a few seconds.

What Naruto’s really searching for is the cellar. A general glance around the room shows no doorways or staircases that could possibly lead down, and for a moment Naruto wonders if Karin sent him on a wild goose chase, until he realizes if there was a place meant to be known only by a select few, Orochimaru would’ve kept it hidden. 

Minutes pass by with Naruto on his knees, until finally in the back corner of the room, the tiles give way to a staircase spiraling down into the depths. Naruto goes down with the lantern in hand.

Darkness alters reality, makes time move slower and the other senses grow heightened. His footsteps echo as his eyes adjust to the brief light allotted to him from the lantern, and a soft hissing sound has the hairs on his arms standing on end. Naruto pushes further, until he reaches a plain wooden door, and turns the knob, until he’s stepping foot inside the hidden room.

A collection of eyes stare back. Naruto jumps, the lantern swinging wildly in his hold as it alights the rows and rows of jars and and cases holding a variety of eyeballs, floating in an unknown liquid, dismembered body parts, and vials of strange substances, namely the unmistakable sight of blood. Bleach and the rancid stench of death stings his eyes, waves of nausea making the world off-kilter, spinning and spinning as he reaches to grab the edge of the table to steady himself. 

The table is sticky and cold, and when he brings the lantern towards where his hand lays, it’s sitting in a pool of drying blood. With a horrified gasp, Naruto all but jumps back, smacking his head against the brick walls encasing him in this tomb of human collections. 

Hissing. A hard object clanging against glass has Naruto’s heart thudding wildly in his ears, and Naruto turns back. Behind him in a glass casing, the snake he’s seen the first time he intruded in the study stares back at him, fangs out. However, it’s not the snake that has his stomach curling in on itself, a shudder racing down his spine, but what’s beyond the snake in the cave. 

Dead mice and severed human fingers. 

All this time, Sasuke’s been coming down to this cellar. The realization of it has Naruto’s eyes brimming with tears, bile chasing up his throat and threatening to spill his dinner onto the floor.

Short of breath and dizzy, light-headed, Naruto races out of this wretched room and only makes it up a few steps and trips over his own feet, falling to the bottom steps and doesn’t bother to pick himself back up. Naruto puts his head between his knees and shuts his eyes tight, trying to steady his beating heart and bring the air back into his lungs. Trembling at the stairwell and snot running down his nose, all he can imagine is Sasuke strapped to the table, Orochimaru’s sick and twisted smile looming over him with an utter delight.

After minutes of sitting there, until he’s sure he won’t pass out on this very stairwell, Naruto pulls himself up on shaky legs, and closes the door. Climbs up the stairs. Put the tiles back to where they go. Body moving on its own in a mechanical, automatic way, his mind a mess of numbing static. For a moment, Naruto stays on his knees, and lets out a sound caught between a sob and growl.

When he finally gathers the strength to stand and leave this study to a night of promising no sleep and nightmares, the sight before him has him halting. Naruto blinks. Unsure if the figure standing before him is real or a manifestation of his guilt.

The two of them stare at each other through the distance.

Only when Sasuke pushes himself off the doorway he was leaning towards, arms still crossed over his chest, does he finally speak, “What will you do now that you’ve discovered the truth here, Naruto?”

Exhausted, Naruto falls to his knees and breaks down, hot tears spilling out of him as he shakes. 

—

That night, two men entangled in each other’s embrace and comfort in a bed of confessions, decide to bring their carved out world a reality.

—

Jiraiya is withholding information from him. There are days where he stares at Naruto with distrustful eyes, smiles at him as if Naruto’s the punchline to a joke he knows nothing about, and it makes Naruto want to scream or tear the other apart with his bare hands. Every time his former sensei laughs or drinks with Orochimaru, Naruto’s hands shake with a violent tremor. 

_Do you know? _Naruto can’t help but think. _If you did, would you care? As long as you get your money from Sasuke, would it even matter to you?_

According to Sakura, the next time Orochimaru will need to travel to Lady Tsunade will be in a couple short weeks. Then, there will be an equal opportunity to sneak Sasuke away from the compound, Jiraiya and Sakura from Orochimaru and Kabuto, and wed the two in secret without the mens knowledge. Despite Sakura’s initial hesitation of joining in on the plan Naruto and Sasuke has concocted, it didn’t take much to convince her otherwise. Having her on their side, convincing Jiraiya nothing’s gone awry on Naruto’s end, has been invaluable, but not enough to dispel the distrust completely. That was Naruto’s job.

All Naruto has to do is play this game for a little while longer. 

However, the longer they wait for Orochimaru to be sick enough to need Tsunade, the more Naruto begins to unravel.

Sasuke’s noticed too. Whenever the mask begins to crack, Sasuke will risk a stolen glance between the two to reassure him, or reach out a hand underneath the table to brush against Naruto’s skin. Sometimes the looks and gentle touches work in steadying Naruto. Other times it only worsens the rage building and building in his heart, threatening to overflow and drown everyone in the vicinity. 

Today is one of those days. 

Orochimaru has been keeping a particular eye on Sasuke since this morning, long, thin fingers tapping anxiously at his side. For the past several days, Naruto has made it impossible for Orochimaru to take Sasuke into his study—claiming Sasuke needs a bath, or to be fed. The older man has grown increasingly more short with Naruto, so much so that even Jiraiya’s begun to take notice.

“I don’t know what’s going on with you, Naruto,” Jiraiya hissed to him, after he’d yanked Naruto’s arm and forced him into a corner where no wandering eyes could gaze upon them. “Whatever it is, knock it off. Keep Orochimaru happy by any means necessary, or else we lose his trust.”

Naruto’s already lost Jiraiya’s trust. At this point, he could care less if Orochimaru so much as remembers his name. 

Which, apparently, Orochimaru does remember.

“Naruto.” The man says his name slow and deliberate, in a way that makes the hairs on the back of his neck stand straight. It doesn’t help that as Naruto glances towards him as he refills his cup of tea, there’s an impossibly wide smirk on his face. “You’ve grown quite close to Sasuke-kun in the several months you’ve been here, haven’t you?”

It takes all of Naruto’s focus to not glare daggers into the man. “I’m his personal servant, and I care for his well-being. Only natural.”

“I see.” Orochimaru raises his hand to signal that’s as much tea as he wants. “Kabuto, go check on Jiraiya, Sasuke, and Lady Haruno for me. See how their painting session is going.”

Kabuto nods, glances at Naruto with a crooked smile, and leaves without another word.

There’s a tense silence in the air that only worsens after Kabuto leaves, suffocating and choking at his lungs. It’s then Naruto realizes this is the first time he’s ever truly been alone with the other man. 

Funnily enough, Naruto feels no fear in his presence.

“Sasuke wasn’t feeling well this morning, so he’s actually not with the two right now,” Naruto informs casually as he goes to clear the table, not sparing the man so much as a glance. “I made him stay in bed until he recuperates.”

Orochimaru hums thoughtfully at the words, and Naruto can feel the way the other’s sharp gaze bore into him, making him seethe under his watch. Ignoring Orochimaru somehow seemed like a feasible idea when it was first presented to him, but now that he’s here with the vile excuse of a human being, Naruto knows he’s long beyond snapping, all but ready to break. 

“You’ve grown rather comfortable here, haven’t you?”

“I suppose,” Naruto grits out as politely as he can manage to a man who's very presence elicits such an utter vile response from.

There’s only a few more plates left to clear, and then Naruto can avoid this wretched monster for the rest of the day.

“Do you really believe you hold any importance in Sasuke’s life?”

Naruto’s whole body tenses, throat gone tight and choking on a bitter laugh. If only the bastard truly understood what’s happening here right under his nose.

“Probably more importance than you think you have over him.”

A low chuckle escapes from Orochimaru, and the sound of wood scraping along wood has Naruto’s attention returning to the man and the chair he’s pushed outward with his foot. The look in his eye is something Naruto’s all too familiar with. Burning hatred. 

“Have a seat, Naruto.”

The tone of his voice makes it obvious that this is not a request, but a demand. Reluctantly, Naruto takes a seat, glaring all the while at the man before him.

Orochimaru plays with his tea, letting the liquid spin around and around, a terse silence following, until he decidedly chooses to look over towards him. Hungry and angry and looking as if he’s barely seconds away from showing Naruto how lethal he could truly be. Naruto’s half-expecting for Orochimaru to lunge across the table and strike him, or threaten him with promises he fully intends to keep.

Instead, Orochimaru merely asks, “Would you care to know the story of how I came to be Sasuke’s guardian?”

The question captures Naruto’s attention immediately, despite the way his instincts scream at him to run off, stay from this man. Considering the way Orochimaru’s smirk only grows wider, the snake must know this.

“What you must understand, Naruto, is there are a string of cause and events that have led us to be seated at this very table,” he begins, setting the tea cup down. Long, bony pale fingers tapping rhythmically on the polished wood. “Before I became a fine arts collector, my specialty has always been within the medical field before I was _ wrongfully _ dismissed from the position by my superior Hiruzen. Nasty rumors had spread about my research of maintaining beauty and longevity that many simpletons wouldn’t begin to understand. There was supposed to be an investigation, but Hiruzen had disappeared before it could fully begin.”

A violent shudder ran through Naruto, from the truth of those rumors and the not so subtle threat lacing through Orochimaru’s words. How easily Orochimaru could make Naruto disappear.

Orochimaru smiles with too many teeth. “Afterwards, I discovered my true passion really came from collecting the beauty of this world. Becoming a collector is how I’ve come into contact with the likes of Jiraiya, Tsunade, even the Daimyo Danzou. However, I always felt as if there was something missing in my life, you see.”

“Like what?” 

“Truly, after many years away, I’ve missed my research,” Orochimaru answers. “Beautiful art and writings can only entertain me for so long. What I truly missed more than anything was the beauty of mystery regarding humanity, Naruto. These bodies we possess.” 

Orochimaru stands from his seat and walks along the expanse of the table, only stopping behind Naruto. Naruto dares not move, despite the fact that Orochimaru's cool breath is grazing the back of his neck.

“I must confess to you I’d lost all my inspiration,” the man continues. “That is until I found my beautiful Sasuke."

Naruto’s jaw clenches, body shaking at the words. At how easily Orochimaru lays claim to Sasuke as if he owns him.

“You see, I thought having him would be rather difficult, but considering my connections… It was not impossible. All I had to do was contact a friend of mine who’s always been rather appreciative of my work, Danzou, who apparently was struggling to reach his title of Daimyo due to a few stubborn, pesky Uchihas.” Orochimaru rests his hands on Naruto’s shoulders then, and the brief contact has him stilling, breath stuck in his chest. “All I needed, however, was one Uchiha.”

It takes only several moments for the words to sink in but when they do, a raging inferno overwhelms him. Naruto’s whole body tenses and shakes with a fervor and he moves to sit up, and when he does Orochimaru’s fingers dig painfully into his shoulders and forcefully shoved him down.

Naruto snaps his neck back at a strange angle in order to seethe at Orochimaru, who only stares back at him with a wicked smile Naruto wants to tear off with his own nails. Tears are burning his eyes from the sheer disgust he sees at the other man. 

“All this time,” Naruto rasps, voice raising and raising, uncaring for his volume. “I thought what happened to Sasuke’s family was because of Itachi’s own selfishness, but you did all this just so you can get your ugly, filthy hands on him!?”

“Itachi initially was my first choice,” Ororochimaru concedes, and leans in close until his breath hits the shell of Naruto’s ear, making him sick to his stomach. “But you see, Sasuke was so young and malleable… A better choice to mold into my image.”

“Don’t talk about Sasuke like you own him!”

All Naruto sees is red. With a quick shove of his feet against the table legs, his chair goes flying back with a force that knocks the other’s grip free from him, sending Orochimaru toppling against the wall. Orochimaru’s head snaps and his face is contorted into a look of pure hatred and suddenly he’s lurching off the wall and gripping Naruto by the shirt, forcefully shoving him onto the ground with a surprising strength for such a sickly man, uncaring for the way Naruto’s head all but bounces from the sheer force of it hitting the floor below. 

Orochimaru kicks at his face, once, twice, the second time connecting with his nose with a solid crack. Blood gushes from his nostrils, flooding his mouth with the taste of copper. No one’s beaten him this badly since Naruto’s been twelve years old, so the force of it has his head spinning, barely managing to bring his arms up to shield himself from the third kick. 

For a moment, Naruto thinks it’s over, but then Orochimaru’s gripping at his hair, forcefully dragging him up until they’re face to face, mere inches away. “Why Sasuke would find an interest in such a filthy, insolent street urchin like you I’ll never know. I knew as soon as Jiraiya brought you into my home you’d cause nothing but trouble, but you surprised me by how well you held your tongue. Maybe I should tear it out of you.”

Naruto laughs, dry and bitter, free from any fear. “Do whatever the hell you want to me. Cut out my tongue. Gouge out my eyes. Rip my head off. Nothing you do will keep me from saving him from this fucking hell you’ve created for him, or will ever change the fact Sasuke will _ never _ belong to you.”

And Naruto spits at Orochimaru’s face to emphasize, watches as his spit and blood sliding down the man’s cheek with a feral grin.

“I should kill you now,” Orochimaru hisses through a tight smirk. “Nobody would miss the likes of an insignificant orphan.”

Without a warning, Orochimaru pulls at Naruto’s hair with enough force that he tears the strands from his scalp, dragging him along the floor. Naruto kicks at and claws at Orochimaru’s legs, earning him another kick, but with a forceful bite on the calf of one and a forceful shove at the back of his knee, Orochimaru comes tumbling down to the floor with a crash. Immediately Naruto drags himself on top of him, straddling the elder man and pinning him down, and blindly reaches for a knife as Orochimaru scratches at his face with sharp fingernails, tearing at his skin.

Once his fingers wrap around a knife he hadn’t packed up yet, Naruto plunges it down into Orochimaru’s chest with heaving, ragged breaths. Over and over again until the man below him no longer wriggles and writhes underneath him. Until the grip of Orochimaru’s hand on his wrist falls to the ground.

The handle of the knife sticks out from Orochimaru’s slowly moving chest until he’s finally grown still, and then it’s over.

Naruto drags himself away from the body until he’s sitting, back flat against the wall. Doesn’t do anything but stare and wonder if there’s something wrong with him that the sight of Orochimaru, dead, doesn’t bring him anything but relief. 

A slow clap echoed in the dining hall, and when Naruto’s head snaps up, Jiraiya’s leaning against the doorframe, emanating a pride that has Naruto’s chest twisting and growing warm simultaneously. 

“Good for you, kid,” Jiraiya remarks. “You just made our job that much easier.”

—

When Sasuke hears of Orochimaru’s death from Naruto’s mouth, he cups his jaw with careful hands and kisses him with a ferocity and passion that makes him forget about the pain pulsating through his face.

Naruto tells him how he came to be in Orochimaru’s care, and merely says, “I know, and thank you. Killing Orochimaru was supposed to be my responsibility, not your burden to bare.”

“I’d do it again for you, Sasuke.”

“As would I for you.”

Everything happens pretty quickly afterwards.

Jiraiya tells the three of them to pack to leave at midnight, while Sakura and Karin go to clean and redress Orochimaru’s corpse. Suigetsu and Juugo elect to take care of Kabuto with sharp and eager smiles on their faces. Naruto doesn’t see Karin, Suigetsu or Juugo until later tonight, after they’ve loaded Orochimaru’s body, pale and cold, wearing a fresh-pressed suit in the back of the car. 

At nightfall, there’s only their goodbyes left. 

Sakura wraps her arms around tightly around Karin’s neck, whispers something into her ear that Naruto can’t hear from this distance, but that has Karin nodding and Sakura wiping a few stray tears when she thinks no one’s noticed. 

With Naruto, the goodbyes are brief and warm, with pleased smiles as Juugo ruffles his hair, Karin looking at him with a new light in her dead eyes, and Suigetsu clasping his shoulders as he tells him that he knew Naruto would be a good addition to the household from the start. 

Once the three reach Sasuke, the goodbyes are short, only because Naruto thinks if they weren’t, it’d hit that much harder. Juugo, Karin, and Suigetsu hug Sasuke close to their chest, as if they’re saying goodbye to family, and Sasuke who usually seems so offended to touch by any other person, accepts it with a familiarity that has Naruto wanting to reach out and comfort him. 

It’s cut short when there’s a honk from the running automobile, and Jiraiya’s shouts, “Hurry up! We’ve got a long drive ahead of all of us now! We won’t be gone for too long!”

Everyone outside the automobile knows it’s a lie. 

Just as Naruto’s tugging at Sasuke’s arm, gently, Suigetsu leans forward and whispers into Sasuke’s ear as a final parting message:

_We’ll take care of everything here until you come back _.

—

They leave past the guards without a second glance. At dawn, once the smell begins to be too noticeable and overwhelming, they dump the body into a lake with a boulder tied to his ankle, and the four of them watch as Orochimaru sinks further and further into the darkness.

Sasuke’s hand is firm and warm as their sweaty palms pressed together, and when Naruto glances towards Sasuke, he all but glows in the moonlight. When Sakura notices, there’s a small understanding smile on her face as she turns away. Only when Jiraiya’s eyes dart towards the both of them, fingers intertwined with each other, does Naruto try to drag his hand from Sasuke.

Instead of letting him, Sasuke only tightens their hold in a reassuring squeeze that has Naruto’s face burning.

Jiraiya mutters something under his breath about returning to the car, and that’s the only cue they need to head back towards their seats.

Sasuke doesn’t let go of his hand the entire time, and sometime during the ride, Naruto falls fast asleep on the other man’s shoulder.

—

At dawn, the four of them arrive to one of Jiraiya’s properties Naruto hasn’t been to since he was young as the car drives away.

It’s a rather small cottage-like house tucked away from the rest of the world, hidden by the surrounding by trees and foliage. Time and lack of use has made the buildig more run-down in its outer appearance, the paint bleached from the sun, vines overgrowing along the walls. Smaller than Naruto remembers it to be, or at least compared to the grandiose houses within the Uchiha compound. This place only held a few rooms, a single bathroom, a plain kitchen and a tiny garden Naruto had tended to during his stays here.

More often than not, Jiraiya would take Naruto here during the months he’d have dedicated to writing his stories or rest stops in between travels from readings to readings. There were others like this scattered throughout Japan in similar hidden places, but this was the first one Naruto had been taken to shortly after Jiraiya had taken him under his wing.

Inside, the cottage is as cozy as he remembers, if only covered with a thin layer of dust. On the mantle is the katana given to Jiraiya from the man’s former sensei, the same rug and coffee table in the living space. It reminds Naruto of simpler times during his childhood.

Before losing himself to nostalgia, Naruto assists with the bags, placing Sakura’s in her room, Jiraiya’s in the writing study where he’d taken to sleeping in, and Sasuke’s into the spare bedroom that was mostly used for storage than for actually hosting guests. Just as Naruto was about to take his suitcase to the living room, Sasuke took his hand and said with a soft voice, “Leave it in here, usuratonkachi.”

With the gentlest of smiles gracing Sasuke’s face, Naruto couldn’t actually bare to refuse him.

“You miss having me in your bed or something?” Naruto teases, quiet despite the fact he knew the others had already opted for going into their rooms already. 

Sasuke lets the door close quietly behind him, and stalks over towards Naruto slow and purposeful, dark eyes alight with a newfound life in them Naruto’s only seen in fragments. They’re beautiful. “I miss being around you without anyone else’s eyes on us.”

“I’m just glad you’re not mad at me anymore,” Naruto replies, soft and bare. 

“Wasn’t angry with you, Naruto,” Sasuke confesses against his mouth, careful not to bump their noses together. “I thought _this _between us was not real.”

“Idiot. Stupid bastard.” Naruto laughs, a little wildly, a little breathless. “It’s real. What I feel for you _is _real.”

“Shut up and kiss me, loser.”

At the request he’s readily happy to give into, Naruto leans in and lets his eyes fall closed as their lips meet, soft and wet and warm. His hands reaching out to hold Sasuke’s hips in his, squeezing gently and smiling into the kiss when Sasuke reacts enthusiastically, wrapping his arms around Naruto’s neck and pulling him closer, closer, closer. Naruto lets his teeth graze at Sasuke’s bottom lip the way he knows the other likes, and the way Sasuke’s grip tightens into his shoulders has a bubble of laughter build in his chest, makes him nip at the other’s bottom lip playfully. 

It’s then Sasuke turns Naruto in his hold, leading him back until his knees hit the back of the small, single mattress until Naruto lands with a bounce, flat on his back. Sasuke’s lifting his shirt over his head and tosses it to the side, raking his eyes over Naruto with a hunger in his eyes that has Naruto swallowing in anticipation. 

Sasuke follows after him, hovering over him as he peppers gentle kisses along the bandages on his face, along his jawline and down the expanse of his neck. Occasionally mouthing and sucking at the skin in a way that has Naruto’s breath hitching, hips rocking forward and letting his head fall back further into the mattress when he’s met with the sweet friction.

The kisses trail along Naruto’s neck toward the lobe of his ear, and Sasuke’s voice, hot and thick with want whispers, “Naruto, what do you want?”

“I want you,” Naruto breathes out, hands sliding along Sasuke’s back and feeling the way the muscles twitch under his palms, moving further and further until he can grab and squeeze at Sasuke’s ass over his pants. Smiles brightly when Sasuke grinds down against him. “Wanna be inside you this time.”

Naruto can _feel _the vibrations as Sasuke hums softly, the way he smiles against his neck as he replies, “Anything you want.”

With a quick movement, Naruto rolls them over until their positions switch, Sasuke lying on his back, dark hair splayed around him as Naruto hovers over him, dull nails dragging along his chest as he takes him all in. All dark features and easy smiles. Sasuke is so beautiful, so open and trusting and loving underneath him, Naruto’s unsure how he’s ever been so lucky to have someone like him.

What Naruto wants more than anything is to draw this out. Take his time in tasting every inch of Sasuke, stealing the desperate and pleasured sounds from his mouth as Naruto makes him fall apart under his mouth, his tongue, his fingers, his cock. 

“You going to stare at me forever or what?” Sasuke asks with a teasing, half-smirk plastered on his face. “Hurry up.”

“Oi, asshole, anyone ever tell you you’re the most annoying person on earth?”

“Maybe one other person who’s equally annoying.”

Naruto laughs and slaps Sasuke lightly at his chest, and Sasuke retorts by reaching under Naruto’s shirt and pinching his between two fingers. It has Naruto squirming on top of him, shooing the other’s hand away so he can grab the hem of his shirt and drag it over his head.

Just as he’s about to rid himself of the offending piece of fabric, however, the door knocks with a heavy fist. 

“Naruto-boy, you in there?” Jiraiya’s voice comes through the door. “Come out, we need to have a chat.”

Glancing down in apology, Sasuke o merely huffs and jerks his head towards the door with a small smile in acknowledgement. Naruto leans down to give him a quick peck on the lips, a promise to continue, before rolling off of him and fixing his hair, his shirt so he doesn’t look too dishevelled when he opens the door a crack. 

Jiraiya tries to step further inside, but Naruto keeps it closed shut and the older man out in the hall, lest he see a half-naked Sasuke in bed. All it does is cause Jiraiya to narrow his eyes towards him, but he lets it go, apparently too exhausted from the ride over here to push it any further. 

“You needed something, Jiraiya?” Naruto asks with a practiced yawn. “I was just helping Sasuke unpack. After the drive, he was just too exhausted.”

The words at least ease Jiraiya’s suspicion somewhat, considering the way the man relaxes. “Letting you know I’ll be off for a few days in the city to find an officiant to come here and perform the wedding ceremony,” the older man says quietly, careful not to be overheard by any lingering ears. “Keep these two within the house, got it? You’re allowed to go into the nearby village for some supplies, but no further than that.”

Naruto nods once in understanding. “Anything else?”

“All of this will be over, Naruto,” Jiraiya says with a smile, nudging gently underneath Naruto’s chin so Naruto’s head tilts back. “Everything will return as it was before, except this time the two of us will be travelling around the world doing readings of my legendary works with more money than we know what to do with.”

Something in Naruto’s gut twists at the promised future he knows he won’t be able to keep, but he forces a smile on his face anyway. Doesn’t let it waver until Jiraiya ruffles his hair and turns away. 

Only when the front door shuts and the automobile out front waiting for them fades away into the distance, does the tension in Naruto’s body drains out of him. Relief mutates into an ecstatic joy at remembering just who and what is waiting for him back in bed. 

For a few days at least, Naruto won’t have to think about Jiraiya’s reaction to Naruto’s change of heart at the original offer.

—

Days pass by in a love-drunk haze. 

It’s the most free Naruto has ever seen of Sasuke, and vice-versa. No secrets or constructed walls stand between the two of them any longer, leaving them open and honest with their wants and affections, even despite Sakura’s presence. After the third day of bearing witness and dealing with the two of them, she opts for feigning annoyance and complains about the both of them making her nauseous. 

In response, Sasuke merely said, “Don’t take out you’re jealousy of not being able to do this with Karin out on us.”

Sakura’s face had turned bright red as she moved to shove Sasuke, muttering about going out to the near-by village to take a break from the both of them.

“Wait,” Naruto started a few minutes after the door was slammed shut. “Sakura and Karin are…?”

“Absolutely clueless.”

For the first time in the entirety of knowing each other, the two of them were completely left alone. Naruto thought if this ever happened, they wouldn’t be able to tear their hands off each other, crazed in a hurried frenzy to get their fill until the moment passed. Except it’s not how it played out.

Most of the day has entailed a slow-moving pace and heavy, lazy limbs strewn about different sections within the house. A quiet lunch followed by a quick card game, entangled limbs as they lazed around the couch, the shared bed within their room laughing and sharing stories of when they were young and kisses that didn’t have to be hidden. The entire day a preview of how the years would be spent as Naruto grew old with Sasuke in a house much like this one day, not too far off in the future. 

Sometime during the afternoon, Naruto must drift off to sleep, considering that when he snaps awake to the sound of glass shattering and shelves crashing from the other room, the sky had darkened and Sasuke’s no longer pressed comfortable and warm at his side. Heart in his throat, Naruto rushes towards the sound coming from Jiraiya’s study, pushes the door open to find Sasuke standing in the middle of the chaos. 

Dark eyes burning with a fury and hatred not meant for him. 

“Fucking christ! Do you know how long this is going to take to clean up, Sasuke?!” Naruto shouts, brows pulled together as he scans at the mess within the study. Papers and glass and books torn apart by the seams. “What the hell are _you _thinking!?”

Sasuke says nothing, and grabs at one of the papers strewn about on the floor without breaking eye contact from Naruto. Raising the paper towards him, Sasuke’s voice is as cold as ice when he asks, “Is this you?”

Naruto glances at the picture just as Sasuke takes a step forward, glass crunching under his feet. It’s a painting he recognizes from one of Jiraiya’s novels, of a boy no older than fourteen, blonde hair and dark blue eyes, bare and posing obscenely. For some reason, his throat goes dry at the question, stomach twisting in knots at the fury laced in Sasuke’s voice, how his hands tremble as he rips the picture apart without Naruto’s answer. 

After a moments delay, Naruto tries to reach forward as he shouts, “Stop!” 

“No,” Sasuke replies, curt and short. Naruto’s never seen him this angry before. “Are these the fucking books that pervert writes? Description after description of porn? There’s dozens of drawings just like _that _one, Naruto!”

For some reason, Naruto has the sudden urge to defend Jiraiya, despite the way his eyes are burning with unshed tears. “You don’t get it! It wasn’t like that! I was just inspiration, I never did any of those things for him, Sasuke! All I had to do was just—show skin and Jiraiya would buy me food and cut off some of my debt, _okay _?!”

“Don’t defend him,” Sasuke seethes. “You were a _child _, Naruto. No debt from a child should ever include _this _.” Another drawing shoved in his face, and Naruto tears his gaze away, frowning. The sound of paper ripping. “There are others here. A young girl by the name of Konan. Another of a boy with red hair. You’re not the only one Jiraiya’s used and manipulated like this.”

“Stop it.”

“The performances and the readings…” Sasuke’s eyes go a little wider at his own words as a dark clarity washes over him. “None of it was solely just for Jiraiya, was it?”

“Shut up!” Naruto yells, shoving Sasuke away though it does little to actually keep him away. In fact, Sasuke steps closer, righteous fury giving way to understanding, empathy dripping in his gaze. “Stop talking like you _know _.”

“I saw it as soon as I laid eyes on you, Naruto,” Sasuke says. “Maybe I didn’t understand where it came from, but I knew you understood the same pain I’ve been through, because you had too.”

And Naruto knows the words Sasuke’s speaking are true, because he’s felt the same. Never could put together why, but it was beginning to make a semblance of sense. 

The similarities were too glaring to keep being ignored.

From the very beginning, Jiraiya’s care had always been conditional to the fact he was able to use him for whatever his needs. Gain something more from him. Always content to disregard him if Naruto had said no, and Naruto had decided to always be willing afterwards. Even now, Naruto meant nothing more to him than a tool in order to gain Sasuke’s money.

Something inside Naruto shatters.

“Naruto,” comes Sasuke’s voice, laced with worry. Naruto’s never hated the sound more. “Talk to me.”

“I don’t wanna talk.”

Naruto glances around the trashed room, and grabs the nearest book in his vicinity, and stares at the pages briefly before ripping them from the seams. Watches as the paper crumbles to the ground and a suck laughter, twisted and wrung tight, leaves past him as he tears and tears until it’s snowing tattered pieces all around them. 

Watching him, Sasuke takes a step aside to let Naruto run wild, but Naruto only grabs his hand and nods, eyes wild and wet with tears streaming down his face, and the two of them rush forward to finish destroying this wretched room. And Naruto finally understands the freedom and weightlessness Sasuke had when Orochimaru’s body sank to the bottom of the river as these precious books are shredded to pieces right before his eyes.

The man Naruto had promised to save out of love, come to be savior. Tearing the lies apart page by page, finally letting him see reality. How lost in the dark Naruto had been, until Sasuke came to reflect the light back to him.

Maybe it was never only Sasuke who needed saving.

It had taken meeting Sasuke to know how to take the first shaky steps towards true freedom, and now Naruto has no plans of going back.

—

At nightfall the automobile pulls up along the dirt road, and Naruto’s nerves alight like fire, body tensing. Not even Sasuke’s hand in his own is enough to quell the unsteady pounding of his heart. 

Fear strikes right into Naruto’s heart, and all the adrenaline and anger from hours previous go dormant. 

Nobody can change all at once, but it had been a start.

“As long as I’m here,” Sasuke says quietly, squeezing Naruto’s hand in his grip. Voice, deep and with a deadly calmness. “No harm will come to you.”

Naruto turns to face him with a crooked smile and merely replies, “Same with you.”

Outside the motor is still running as footsteps approach the door, only growing louder when Jiraiya pushed inside, hair amess and dark bags under his eyes. Immediately his eyes dart to where Naruto and Sasuke are sitting on the couch, hand in hand, and for a split second an annoyed expression crosses his face before it’s gone. He claps his hands together as if to wake up the entire room. 

“There’s no time to be wasting here,” Jiraiya mutters at the both of them. “Where’s Sakura? The officiant is at the inn waiting for us. We need to move.”

Taking a shaky breath, Naruto’s the first to speak, “Sakura came back earlier, but we told her to go back to the village until we come to get her.”

Jiraiya pinches the bridge of his nose, the vein in his forehead throbbing as he takes in the words. “Why on _earth _would you go ahead and tell her something so foolish, Naruto? Never mind that, get in the car. We’ll go to the village and pick her up before we drive towards the inn.”

“No, we’re not going anywhere with you,” Naruto says, eyes deadset and firm towards his former sensei. “This whole thing? It’s over.”

Jiraiya barks out a laugh, glancing between the two with a maniacal disbelief as he reaches into his coat pocket for his pipe. Lights it up with the spare matchbook left on the shelf of the fireplace and takes a puff, smoke escaping as he chuckles without humor. “I had a feeling you’d end up being too soft and give us up, Naruto. Being swayed by this man, possibly one of the more foolish decisions you’ve come to.”

“I’d rather be a fool than change my mind about Sasuke,” Naruto retorts.

“Idiot boy.” Another exhale of smoke that waifs directly over towards them, making Naruto scrunch his nose distastefully as Sasuke narrows his eyes. “After all our years spent together, you’re going to throw it away just like that.”

Naruto shakes his head. “All you did was use me.”

“Use you? Who took you in when you were a thief? Who fed you? Took care of you when nobody else wanted to, huh? Taught you what it meant to be a man,” Jiraiya says with a scoff, deceptively calm. “You think your Sasuke isn’t using you right now?”

Sasuke tenses against Naruto, but doesn’t speak. Has promised to restrain himself so Naruto could get his words in, no matter how much he insisted he’d come to his defense if needed. Only thing is Naruto didn’t need him yet. 

“Always so naive, Naruto.” Jiraiya shakes his head in disappointment. “Do you know what your precious Sasuke would’ve done to you after the wedding? Send you to the looney house in your name so he can live off without Orochimaru coming after him.”

A laugh escapes Sasuke then, and Naruto smiles. The look of startled confusion on Jiraiya’s face is absolutely priceless.

“None of that is news to me,” Naruto relays. “That night, after our argument, I found Orochimaru’s hidden room. Sasuke followed me and asked what I’d do now that I discovered the truth. The way he looked at me, I betrayed you without a second thought.”

That night was shrouded in darkness, where Sasuke’s voice echoed along the horrid chambers of Orochimaru’s vile. The sinking, heart of ugliness of the house. 

_What will you do now, Naruto?_

A voice barely above a whisper. The sounds of knees crashing to the ground, the way Naruto shook in a blinding rage as hot tears ran down his face.

_I’ll protect you with my life _.

The waves of truth finally crashing through and destroying all the walls in its path. Not just from Naruto, but Sasuke as well. Revealing every secret, every reason for the treachery and lies until there was nothing left but them. 

How that night they fell in a mass of tangled limbs and Naruto had decided that he would never do anything to bring harm to Sasuke ever again. 

“With Orochimaru dead, I had no need to betray Naruto,” Sasuke says, for the first time since Jiraiya’s stepped foot into the house. “Considering we made a deal, I was willing to hold up my end of the bargain for your efforts in giving me opportunity to be rid of him, but given recent events… I’m afraid our deal is off the table as well.”

“You little…”

“You were going to betray both of us to keep the money for yourself,” Sasuke continues. “Kill me off and Sakura as well so you didn’t have to give her any of her share. Use the fake passport made for me and get rid of Naruto like all the others you’ve kept in your company the moment you realized he was no longer obeying your every whim.”

Jiraiya’s eyes widen as his head snaps in the direction of his study, and darts in the direction. The gasp is loud enough to hear even from where Naruto and Sasuke stand, waiting for the man to return. When he does, his face is red, the cigar burning, looking like a hot-blooded dragon with a murderous expression glaring right at the two of them. 

“Admit it,” Naruto says, eyes burning with unshed tears. “You told me it was only ever going to be the two of us traveling the world, and maybe it was true at first, but I felt you growing more and more frustrated with me. Got colder with me when you realized I wasn’t fully in it anymore.”

“You were my favorite,” Jiraiya admits. “Which is why I was heartbroken to realize you could no longer be trusted, Naruto.”

There’s a truth to these words Naruto’s come to expect, but it doesn’t make it any easier to hear.

Jiraiya glances towards the mantle above the fireplace where the katana rests in its sheath, causing both Sasuke and Naruto to snap their gazes. Meaty fingers wrap around the handle, but Naruto shoves into Jiraiya, knocking him down flat on his back which elicits an agonizing howl from the other man. Sasuke makes a grab for the katana only to be kicked backwards into the wall, his head connecting against the masonry with a loud thump. The back of his head splitting and blood streaming and having his hair stick to the back of his neck. 

With a force that has Naruto shoved along the other side as Sasuke scrambles for the katana, Jiraiya brings his foot down to Sasuke’s outstretched hand and stomps, once, missing as Sasuke barely manages to pull away, twice, and this time the full brunt of his weight crushing along his wrist. A scream erupts from him and Naruto’s blood boils with rage as he grabs a fistful of white hair and drags him away from Sasuke with a strength he didn’t know he had. 

Except Jiraiya’s stronger, even in his older age, and shoves Naruto down. Straddles on either side of him as his hands move to wrap around his neck like a snake and squeezes, making Naruto’s heart pound rigorously against his chest. Eyes wide with fear as he digs his nails in and claws at Jiraiya’s flesh, kicking in a feverous attempt only to realize it’s useless under the mass of muscle and weight pinning him down.

“We could’ve lived like kings, Naruto!” Jiraiya wheezes out, hands shaking with the effort of squeezing the life out of him. Tears trickle down his twisted, blurry face, just as the blots of darkness began to creep into the edges of Naruto’s vision. “All you had to do was listen to my teachings and none of us would be in this position right now!”

Head throbbing and lungs burning, Naruto chokes against Jiraiya’s grasp around his neck. Already his body is growing sluggish, but he dares not stop fighting. Reaches forward to bite, to scream, to wriggle out of his grasp, but Jiraiya slams him back down to the ground, head bouncing against the floorboards.

“Stop struggling,” comes his former mentor’s voice, strained and begging. “It’ll all be over soon…”

And it does end, the tightness on Naruto’s neck, suddenly and with a squelch and the blood trickling out of Jiraiya’s mouth landing on Naruto. 

Naruto’s gasping for air, coughing and dizzy with it at how it burns his throat coming back to him, eyes glancing down to where the pointed end of the katana sticks out right from where Jiraiya’s heart should. Behind him, Sasuke, bruised and bloody, both hands gripping the blade and twisting it further and further until the choked out sounds from Jiraiya turn into strangled garbles into silence.

Eyes wide, Naruto pushes himself back away until his back is hitting the wall. Watches with abject horror and relief as Sasuke presses his foot on Jiraiya’s back to pull him off the blade, wipe the blood on the back of Jiraiya’s best suit, and places the katana back in its holster.

The only sound in the room is both of their heavy breathing. Naruto opens his mouth to speak, but Sasuke’s down on his knees, his better hand cupping his cheek as he presses his forehead against Naruto’s.

“Don’t speak yet,” he says, quiet. “Just focus on breathing.” 

Naruto nods and a choked off sob of grief escapes him, and the overwhelming hatred for himself that follows has him trembling.

Apparently, Sasuke’s able to read his mind, considering he says, “For a long time, you believed Jiraiya had your best interests at heart. The grief that follows while unwanted, is natural.”

A boy flashes in his mind, who looks so much like Sasuke except for the dead look in older eyes who knows too much of the future. Sasuke speaks from a place of experience.

“It will grow easier to make sense of the person you thought you knew.”

Which is why Naruto chooses to believe it’ll be true. 

They take a few moments to gather their bearings, clean up, and bandage their wounds the best they can until Sakura can take a look at it, before gathering the last of their things. Outside Sasuke tells the car to drive to the village to pick up Sakura, offers him money to keep from asking any further questions. 

Naruto grabs the used matchbook Jiraiya would ever use for his last cigar, lights a match, and fling it towards the house.

Together they watch the past burn in flames.

—

“Are you sure you two won’t be staying?” Sakura asks. “After everything that’s happened, don’t you think you’d both better be off with some rest?”

Naruto’s already putting away the rest of their things into the trunk of the car. Outside the main house, Karin, Suigetsu, and Juugo talk animatedly to Sasuke, much like their final goodbye, except without interruption. From this distance, Naruto notices the way the key he’s handing over towards Suigetsu glistens in the sun.

“Yeah,” Naruto answers with a small smile. “Don’t worry yourself over little old me, Sakura-chan. We’ll be back, eventually. I wanted to show Sasuke the rest of Japan. Poor bastard’s experience of setting foot out of the compound hasn’t exactly been the most pleasant.”

Mentions of the recent past are easier to joke about, but it still stings. As if reopening because of a wrong movement, a suddenness that reminds Naruto it’s fresh and barely beginning to heal over unlike the rest of his body. 

Perhaps the journey will make it easier for both of them.

“I’m going to miss you, y’know,” Sasuke says softly, unlike herself. “Without you and Sasuke intervening when you did, I would’ve…”

“I know.”

Neither of them need to say it.

Sakura flings herself forward and envelops him in a hug that’s as bone-crushing as it is overwhelmingly warm. Mumbles into his ear about staying safe and finding a peace she can hope to see one day, and he responds with a confident promise that he will, eventually. Someday soon.

“Oi! You better not be making any moves on my girl, Uzumaki,” Karin yells from the steps, making Sakura laugh into his shoulder as Naruto glances above Sakura’s head and sticks his tongue out at her. “Watch it, I’ll rip that tongue out.”

“Actually, I quite like that tongue where it is,” Sasuke deadpans, earning himself a shove from Karin and pained groans from Suigetsu and Juugo.

A shudder would’ve ran through him, but instead laughter bubbles out of him instead. Naruto thinks maybe this is healing, or at least the opposite of pain.

“Don’t let my house fall apart while we're gone,” comes Sasuke’s final words to everyone. Then he makes his way down the steps, until he’s right at Naruto’s level and tilts his head with a fond smile on his face that has Naruto melting. “Are you ready?”

“Never been more ready than for anything in my life.” 

—

Together they travel throughout Japan. 

More often than not, they travel by foot and carry light when they’re not taking a train or a boat to their destinations. Naruto takes Sasuke to the heart of Tokyo, the piers of Osaka, the shrines and temples and gardens in Kyoto. Spends more of his time watching Sasuke’s face rather than the places they go, unsure of where he’d find anything more beautiful.

All this time Naruto had wanted to run far from Japan, travel the world, but right here there’s nowhere else he’d rather be.

When the moon is over them, covering them in its glowing light, while Naruto hovers over Sasuke and drinking in the way his body moves underneath him, the way his name comes out of Sasuke’s mouth like a prayer, Naruto thinks he may be lost in a dream.

Maybe he’s died and this is heaven.

Reality only comes when Sasuke’s warm breath whispers into his ear, “I love you. More than anything, I love _ you _, Naruto.”

Truth is, Naruto would go through this all again if only to hear those words from Sasuke.

**Author's Note:**

> ** SPOILERS **  
For the human experimentation/torture: The most talked about this is during a scene where Naruto discovers the cellar in Orochimaru's study.  
— If you want to skip the details, stop reading at "Darkness alters reality..." and continue at the start of, "After minutes of sitting there..."  
For the implied childhood sexual abuse: It's referenced throughout the entire fic, but comes to focus when Sasuke finds drawings of Naruto in Jiraiya's study. Nothing explicit again, but understandable for disturbing content.  
— If you want to skip the details, stop reading at "Dark eyes burning with a hatred not meant for him" and continue at, "And Naruto knows the words Sasuke's speaking are true..."
> 
> I was going to add more subplots like a further emphasis on Sakura/Karin, and the Akatsuki, buuut then I'd end up writing a novel and who's got the time! LOL
> 
> Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed, leave a comment/kudos :~)  
I'm on tumblr @sapphicvevo/bitchynaruto; twitter @bihetnaruto


End file.
